The phenomenon is not exactly marginal: according to a recently released government report, one in every three workers in Canada is assisting a chronically disabled person — many of them seniors — with transportation, household maintenance or day-to-day tasks.
The public response to the appeal on behalf of Eugene Melnyk, owner of the Ottawa Senators hockey team, for a liver donor has been a heart-warming demonstration of the generosity of our community. Fortunately, a donor was found and the transplant was performed in time to save his life.
Canada’s cities face a number of problems: traffic, housing, crime, infrastructure – the list goes on. Prescription drugs are one of these problems – one that is costing local governments as much as $500-million every year.
Bridge Over Diagnosis – a parody of the Simon and Garfunkel classic Bridge Over Troubled Water. Overdiagnosis is an important health care issue and hopefully this video highlights a number of the issues around this important problem.
Wait times have long been a source of concern for Canadians, and in some jurisdictions, remain a significant problem. Recently the Canadian Institutes of Health Information (CIHI) released their report for 2015. There is both encouraging news and areas in need of attention.
I’m a U.S. family physician who has decided to relocate to Canada. The hassles of working in the dysfunctional health care “system” in the U.S. have simply become too intense.
The Prentice government announced that it will restore the use of healthcare taxes so that Albertans can directly contribute to the healthcare system. On the surface, levying up to $1000 per person earning over $50,000 per year to contribute approximately $0.5 billion over two years towards an $18 billion medical treatment system sounds reasonable.
Will the cost of senior care in Canada one day break the bank? Probably not, contrary to common perceptions.
Repeatedly over the past 50 years, national commissions and inquiries have recommended that Canadian medicare include universal, public coverage of prescription drugs. So far, no government has acted on this, creating profound inequities and inefficiencies in our health care system. But more than that: the lack of universal pharmacare is bad for Canadian businesses, large and small.
The health care system in Canada is not always perfect. Mistakes are made, but Dr. Joshua Tepper believes it is critical we learn from past healthcare mistakes in order to improve the quality of services.
