A Toronto doctor named Gary Bloch has developed a poverty tool for medical practitioners. It helps assess what patients might need other than prescriptions for the newest drugs; it zooms in on the social determinants of health — food, housing, transportation — all poverty markers linked to bad health and poor health outcomes.
Buried in the current omnibus budget bill being studied by Parliament is a plan to demote the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada. He will no longer hold a deputy minister rank, he will have no direct line to the federal minister of health, he will be subservient to a bureaucratic agency president and he will have no secure public funding.
Like Canada, the U.S. also overuses medical technology. CT scans in emergency rooms come to mind. But when there’s talk of using this type of service more rationally, cries of rationing ring through the media.
Two court cases with strong implications for the future of the Canadian health care system have been frequently mentioned in the news. Understanding the Chaoulli and Cambie Surgeries cases involves clarifying the difference between public and private health care in Canada.
For decades, health care researchers have been writing about the implications of the aging of the demographic bulge produced by the boom-bust sequence. Despite some scare mongering commentaries in the media, there won’t be a sudden, overwhelming impact on health care costs.
The Dutch health care system is often cited as an example of an efficient, universally-accessible system that has successfully integrated a strong competitive market component into it. In a June 2014 report by the Commonwealth Fund, the Dutch system was ranked in the middle of the pack of the 11 countries under study.
Among the many reasons offered for why many Canadians are increasingly facing difficulties finding a family physician to call their own is the fact that the workforce has become increasingly female. The argument usually goes something like this: female family practitioners work fewer hours, take time out to raise families and have shorter careers.
We are talking openly about mental illnesses and addictions now more than ever – and that’s a good thing. Efforts to address the stigma associated with mental illnesses have made it easier for people who have been suffering in silence to seek help.
Since 2006, British Columbia has spent more than a billion dollars to improve primary health care. So have BC patients benefited from such a massive investment? Sadly, it appears not.
Choosing Wisely — a parody of the infectious Pharrell Williams song “Happy” by Dr. James McCormack — choose wisely when it comes to making healthcare decisions and if you choose wisely it will make you happy.
