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April 1, 2016

Residents of Alberta will soon be able to "tap" for an ambulance with Alberta Health Services' new "TAP-ulance" smartphone app. The app, which will be rolled out in Edmonton first and then throughout the rest of the province, provides "new market-based emergency care solutions focused on patient choice," AHS said in a news release.

April 12, 2016

Last month made five years since the nuclear plant at Fukushima, Japan suffered meltdowns. The release of highly toxic radiation from the reactors was enormous, on the level of the Chernobyl disaster a generation earlier. But Fukushima is arguably worse than Chernobyl.

By Scott Neigh | August 24, 2016

On this week's episode of Talking Radical Radio, Scott Neigh speaks with Mary Shortall, Jim Dinn, and Sara Langer. They are all members of Common Front NL, a broad coalition that has formed to oppose the drastic austerity measures being implemented by the provincial government in Newfoundland and Labrador. According to today's guests, there isn't a lot of precedent, at least in recent decades, for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador rising up in significant numbers to oppose the policies of their provincial government. But late last year, a provincial Conservative government that had been in power for many years was decisively defeated, and a large Liberal majority swept into office. Though their platform did not call for cuts and privatization -- that is, for austerity -- the introduction of their first budget in the context of a major economic downturn made decisive moves in that direction, with the possibility of even more drastic cuts in a second budget slated for late in 2016. The cut that made the news most widely outside of Newfoundland would've resulted in the closure of many, many public libraries, and that has (at least for the moment) been rescinded, but as today's guests discuss, the vast majority of cuts are still happening, and people's lives are being impacted in a wide range of ways.

Join us in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, October 14-16, 2016

Maude Barlow, Avi Lewis, José Bové, Elizabeth Penashue, Greg Malone

Government cutbacks, climate change and economic inequality – these are some of the challenges we face in a world where corporations have more power than people. Can we find a new way forward? Can we work together to build a fair economy – one that produces renewable energy, protects water and provides good jobs for us all? Can we build a vibrant democracy, strengthen our public health care system, and achieve justice for Indigenous peoples? Can we create the Canada we want?j

August 21, 2016

VANCOUVER - Canadian doctors want the federal government to make sure health care professionals have the resources they need to care for the country's aging population, says the president of the Canadian Medical Association.Dr. Cindy Forbes said the group has been working hard on creating a strategy to care for aging seniors, and wants to make sure funding for care is covered in a future health accord, which would set out how federal health care money is distributed to provinces.

Vancouver Sun Sat Aug 20 2016

Q Speaking of Dr. Day, he's the lead plaintiffin a Charter of Rights challenge against the B.C. government over whether doctors should be allowed to bill patients privately for expedited care in private surgical clinics. The trial will start Sept. 6 after numerous delays. What do you think will happen and what would be the best outcome for patients?

A I don't really hold an opinion on that because the question is bigger than that. It's about ways to make our public system better. And secondly, society will only put a certain amount of money toward the health system since there's only a certain amount (taxpayers) can tolerate. Whether we have a private component to health care is fundamentally a societal decision. I doubt we'll get a definitive answer anytime soon, even after this trial, and I don't think it's something that should be decided by the courts because, as I said, it's a societal decision.

THE NATIONAL Sun Aug 21 2016

Byline: CHRISTINE BIRAK; DR. NAVEED MOHAMMAD; DR. FAIZ MALAM; MANDEEP DOMI (phon.) IAN HANOMANSING (HOST):

He says this centre sees roughly 250 patients a day, significantly easing pressure on the hospital with quick service. So why aren't more people using them? While some are run by hospitals, most urgent care centres are under private ownership.

After a year of struggles emotionally and financially … this was the best choice for us.'

Aug 23, 2016 2:

Blood collection workers in Charlottetown have voted to accept a new contract offer from their employer and return to work after being on strike for almost a year.

Pray for the Dead: A Musical Tale of Morgues, Moguls, and Mutiny is a winner.

morgue workers’ union contract campaign that leads to an unlikely uprising.

Cesar Chavez used theater brilliantly on the back of a truck with the Teatro Campesino. The big, bad agricultural boss, who was a fat ugly guy, prompted the farmworker audience to throw tomatoes. Then Chavez would come out and speak.

By Cory Collins | February 25, 2016

Compass shipped thousands of potentially Listeria-contaminated meals to Ontario jails. It got kicked off the University of Winnipeg campus because students couldn't stomach its food. It left its cleaning crews too understaffed and undertrained to cope with a fatal disease outbreak in a B.C. hospital. Meanwhile, Compass is making a killing. It had revenues of $35 billion last year, and paid its CEO $12 million," the statement continued.

The company has also come under fire before for allegations of bribery meant to secure contracts with the UN; paying wages to kitchen workers at the U.S. Senate cafeteria so low that they were homeless or on food stamps; and its role in the European horsemeat scandal of 2013.

Oct. 17, 2016

The federal Health Minister says Ottawa has been giving large sums of money to the provinces and territories for health care without assurances that it is being used for that purpose and the result is a mediocre system must be transformed to better meet Canadians’ needs.

Unless the provinces and territories come up with other innovative ideas for improving health care, Ottawa is not prepared to give more, Dr. Philpott said.She also said she will not ask for additional money from the federal Finance Minister if the provinces cannot prove it will be used for health care. At the moment, Dr. Philpott said, “I don’t know where that money is going.”

CMAJ October 18, 2016 vol. 188 no. 15 First published September 19, 2016, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.109-5330

News Intervenors decry Charter challenge of medicare Steve Mertl + Author Affiliations Vancouver, BC Sanctioning doctors to practise in both public and private health care, and bill above the medicare fee schedule would lead to an inequitable, profit-driven system, warns a promedicare coalition opposing a Charter challenge of British Columbia laws.

Cambie Surgeries Corp., which operates private clinics, and co-plaintiffs, launched the case against the BC government and its Medicare Protection Act. “(T)he Coalition Intervenors are here to advocate for all of those British Columbians who rely on the public system, and whose right to equitable access to health care without regard to financial means or ability to pay — the very object of the legislation being attacked — would be undermined if the plaintiffs were to succeed,” lawyer Alison Latimer said in her written opening submitted Sept. 14 to the BC Supreme Court.

Pharmacies are currently making secret payments totalling more than $20 million a year to secure drug contracts with nursing homes. The practice must stop.

Mon., Oct. 17, 2016

They don’t pass the sniff test. Secret fees paid to nursing homes by pharmacies bidding for lucrative drug supply contracts don’t put the interests of patients first. What makes the “kickbacks,” as one critic calls them, even worse is that nursing homes can’t or won’t say exactly where the money is going.Why does this matter? Lots of reasons.

Health minister has 'hope' funding for home care will be in budget, but can't say for sure

Oct 19, 2016

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott says that if her government is to make an investment in mental health it needs to know where the money is going to go, and to be able to measure that the 'system has improved.'