Skip to main content

Home/ CUPE Health Care/ Group items tagged history

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Heather Farrow

The story of a separate and unequal Canadian health care system - Home | The Sunday Edi... - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...n-health-care-system-1.3707678

aboriginal hospital

shared by Heather Farrow on 08 Aug 16 - No Cached
  • Canada is still coming to grips with several painful chapters in its history of relations with Aboriginal people. Canadians are finally becoming broadly acquainted with the shameful history of residential schools, and the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women is now officially the subject of a national inquiry. Less well-known is the history of racially segregated hospitals in Canada. So-called "Indian hospitals," as they were known at the time, operated in Canada until the 1970s. 
  • Maureen Lux is a professor of history at Brock University. She spoke to guest host Kevin Sylvester about her new book, Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, 1920s-1980s, which explores the history of Indian hospitals and the many contradictions at the heart of healthcare for Indigenous Canadians in the 20th century.  
Heather Farrow

Sad history of our 'Indian hospitals' - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/...249911118

hospital aboriginal research

shared by Heather Farrow on 22 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • St. Catharines Standard Wed Jun 22 2016
  • "Why can't they just let it go?" This is a common refrain heard when talking about First Nations issues in Canada that does nothing to address the problems the country faces. At this point, I think most Canadians understand, and hopefully respect, that our aboriginal brothers and sisters were atrociously treated by the federal government for a shamefully significant portion of our history. Forced Christianization. Residential schools. The refusal to recognize treaty rights. The deliberate attempt to extinguish aboriginal culture. None of it can be denied by any thinking person.
  • However, Canadians as a culture, as a body politic, still have a difficult time grasping the legacy of it. We look at a place like Attawapiskat in 2016, and cannot draw the links between the past and the present. What do, for instance, residential schools have to do with teenagers in a First Nations community forming suicide pacts? Kids in Attawapiskat today didn't attend those schools, so why is the issue brought up when taking about what is happening now? Why can't people today just put the past behind them where it belongs? History, however, is like ripples in a pond. Some events can shape people or entire communities for generations. And when it comes to Canada's First Nations communities, that history isn't just about events from 200 years ago. They exist in living memory.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Brock University history professor Maureen Lux has documented a part of this recent past in her new book, Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, which describes a period from the 1920s to 1980s, when the nation effectively had two health-care systems - one for aboriginals and one for everyone else.
  • In these hospitals, First Nations patients often received substandard care in facilities that were, in Lux's words, underfunded by design. Some patients were experimented on by surgeons using outdated and ineffective treatments for illness like tuberculosis, leaving them disfigured. "It was all part of an attempt, frankly, to prevent white Canadians from having to share hospital space with aboriginals," she said. Although there were so-called Indian hospitals prior to the mid-1940s, they didn't really take off until after the Second World War ended. This was the period where Canada began to move toward universal health care. While the politicians argued over what that might look like, federal funding was made available to build hospitals. Lux said that by 1948, that money created more than 46,000 new hospital beds in Canada. At the same time, the federal Indian Health Service was responsible for a separate, segregated hospital system for First Nations communities.
  • Unlike the facilities for non-aboriginal Canadians, these hospitals were not new buildings, but established in army bases Ottawa no longer needed. The pay for medical staffin these hospitals was low, attracting doctors and nurses who, Lux said, "could not get a job anywhere else." Lux tracked how tuberculosis patients were treated in these Indian hospitals compared to the rest of the nation, and the results are chilling. Prior to the 1950s there were few effective treatments for tuberculosis. Beyond bed rest, there were some surgical attempts, including deflating lungs and removing ribs, to halt the disease.
  • "But that was never very effective, but at the time there were no other options," Lux said. "But by the 1950s, you have effective antibiotics and instead of staying at the hospital, most times you were given your meds and sent home." Unless you were an aboriginal person. The prevailing attitude was that First Nations people could not be trusted to take their medications, so they were kept in hospital and, instead of using antibiotics, doctors continued to use ineffective, invasive treatments. In fact, First Nations people could not even use Canada's proper hospitals. Prior to national health care, Canadians still needed private health insurance. So if an aboriginal person came to a hospital, they were asked how they would pay. Usually the answer was the Indian Health Service, which only paid for treatment in Indian hospitals. Patients often died. If an aboriginal person was in a facility far from home, the federal government would only pay for them to be buried at the nearest grave yard, rather than be sent home for a funeral. Lux said many First Nations people were buried in unmarked graves in the back of graveyards as a result.
  • The decommissioning of this segregated system didn't start until 1968 with the arrival of universal health care, but some facilities continued to operate until the 1980s. Lux said in a few remote communities, a few of the hospitals still exist, although they operate more as medical clinics than hospitals. The point is there are First Nations Canadians alive today who were treated in those hospitals, and would have been subjected to poor, even dangerous, care simply because they were aboriginals. So when someone asks why, when it comes to First Nations issues, the past cannot be left in the past, you can tell them it's because that history is very much alive for many people. And until we learn to deal with the reality of that, nothing is going to change. Lux's book is available from the University of Toronto Press and on Amazon.
Heather Farrow

CUPE Equality History digital timeline | Canadian Union of Public Employees - 0 views

cupe.ca/cupe-equality-history

cupe equity

shared by Heather Farrow on 18 May 16 - No Cached
  • Oct 20, 2015
  • CUPE has a proud history of championing equality - within our union, our workplaces and our communities. Through the equality history project, we’ve now traced our role in key human rights struggles over the years, in Canada and internationally.
Heather Farrow

Tens of Thousands Worldwide Take Part in Largest Global Civil Disobedience in the Histo... - 0 views

www.commondreams.org/...bal-civil-disobedience-history

environment campaign

shared by Heather Farrow on 17 May 16 - No Cached
  • May 16, 2016
  • A global wave of peaceful direct actions lasting for 12 days took place across six continents targeting the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects
  • Hundreds stood up to South Africa’s most powerful family with a march that delivered coal to their front door, despite their attempts to silence civil society by pressuring police to revoke permits for a march
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • 10,000 marched against a proposed coal plant in Batangas, the Philippines
  • 3,500 people shut down one of Europe’s biggest carbon polluters in Germany, occupying a lignite mine and nearby power station for over 48 hours, reducing the plant’s capacity by 80 percent.
  • Dozens of people occupied train tracks overnight on both coasts of the United States to stop oil-filled ‘bomb trains’ from rolling through communities — including less than 100 feet from low-income public housing in Albany, New York.
  • On land and water, indigenous communities and local activists blockaded the Kinder Morgan tar sands facility in Metro-Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish Territories.
Cheryl Stadnichuk

It's beyond time for a clear policy on paying donors for plasma - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article29944680

plasma private

shared by Cheryl Stadnichuk on 10 May 16 - No Cached
  • Canadian Plasma Resources, having failed miserably with its plan to pay plasma donors in Toronto, has now set up shop in Saskatoon.Why Saskatchewan – or any other province, for that matter – would align itself with a company that has a controversial history and business plan is odd, especially given Canada’s painful history with tainted blood. And it is doubly puzzling because the provinces own Canadian Blood Services (CBS), the not-for-profit agency that collects blood and plasma (from volunteer, non-remunerated donors) in Canada, and whose efforts are undermined by the private company’s tactics. It’s as if the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
  • Regardless, the festering presence of Canadian Plasma Resources has forced us to come to grips with the pros and cons of paid plasma. The Krever Inquiry – an exhaustive examination of the debacle that left more than 30,000 Canadians infected with HIV-AIDS and hepatitis C from tainted blood and blood products – said that donors should not be paid, “except in rare circumstances.”The World Health Organization also says countries should aspire to 100-per-cent voluntary blood and plasma donations by 2020. But the stark reality is that blood (and plasma in particular) is a big and profitable business with an expanding market.
  • Ethically, the notion of paying for bodily fluids and body parts makes us uncomfortable. In Canada, we have banned the sale of sperm, eggs and organs, in large part due to fears the poor and vulnerable could be exploited. But only two provinces, Quebec and Ontario, have banned the sale of blood and plasma.There is also a safety issue. While there is evidence that paying for blood attracts higher-risk donors, it doesn’t necessarily mean the end product is less safe – even if companies such as Canadian Plasma Resources set-up shop next door to homeless shelters.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Regardless of source, it’s important to ensure the safety and security of supply for patients who need blood and blood products. Currently, CBS collects about 200,000 litres of plasma annually. That is enough to produce only about 22 per cent of blood products such as intravenous immunoglobulin, which is used to treat a growing number of immune disorders. That product is purchased from the United States and Switzerland.
  • Currently, there are no manufacturers of blood products in Canada. However, both Green Cross Biotherapeutics and Therapure Biopharma are getting into the business. Within five years, CBS hopes to increase collection markedly to about 500,000 litres a year, with the use of dedicated plasma collection centres. But CBS has no plans to pay donors, other than the traditional cookies and juice. Nor does it plan to buy plasma from other providers, such as Canadian Plasma Resources.In fact, what Canadian Plasma Resources plans to do with the plasma it has collected is unclear as it does not have license from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which means it essentially can’t sell its plasma in the United States. What is clear, however, is that there is a lot of action in the blood business; as opportunities arise, we must be careful to not repeat the errors at the root of the tainted-blood debacle. What policy makers need to do now is come up with a clear, coherent position on issues such as paying for plasma and domestic production of blood products rather than grasping at every shiny bauble that comes along.
Govind Rao

Not just justice: inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women needs public healt... - 0 views

www.cmaj.ca/...E78

from heather aboriginal gender violence

shared by Govind Rao on 15 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • CMAJ March 15, 2016 vol. 188 no. 5 First published February 29, 2016, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.160117
  • On Dec. 8, 2015, the Government of Canada announced its plan for a national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, in response to a specific call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.1 On Jan. 5, 2016, a pre-inquiry online survey was launched to “allow … [stakeholders an] opportunity to provide input into who should conduct the inquiry, … who should be heard as part of the inquiry process, and what issues should be considered.”2 We urge the federal government to be cognizant of the substantial knowledge, skill and advocacy of those who work in public health when deciding who should be consulted as part of this important inquiry.
  • A recent report from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police3 confirmed that rates of missing person reports and homicide are disproportionately higher among Aboriginal women and girls than in the non-Aboriginal female population. As rates of female homicide have declined in Canada overall, the rate among Aboriginal women remains unchanged from year to year. This is troubling, and the need to seek testimony from survivors, family members, loved ones of victims and law enforcement agencies in the inquiry is clear.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • However, we should avoid diagnosing this problem merely as a failure of law enforcement. Murders represent the tip of an iceberg of problems related to endemic violence in communities. Many Aboriginal women and girls, and indeed men and boys, live each day under the threat of interpersonal violence and its myriad consequences.
  • Initial statements from the three federal ministers tasked with leading the forthcoming inquiry — the ministers of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, Justice and Status of Women — suggest that its purpose is to achieve justice, to renew trust between indigenous communities and the Canadian government and law enforcement bodies, and to start a process of healing.
  • The inquiry surely must also endeavour to lay the groundwork for a clear plan to address the broader problem of interpersonal violence, which, in turn, is rooted in several key determinants. Addressing interpersonal violence is not merely an issue of justice; it is also a public health concern.
  • Factors associated with both the experience and perpetration of interpersonal violence are manifold. They include but are not limited to mental health issues, drug and alcohol misuse, unemployment, social isolation, low income and a history of experiencing disrupted parenting and physical discipline as a child. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report has highlighted that many of these factors are widespread in the Aboriginal populations of Canada.4 Many of the same factors contribute to disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in areas such as education, socioeconomic circumstances and justice. T
  • here is also substantial overlap with identified determinants of poor health in Aboriginal communities both in Canada and elsewhere.5,6 These are the factors associated with higher rates of youth suicide, adverse birth outcomes and tuberculosis, and poorer child health. It’s clear that a common web — woven of a legacy of colonization and cultural genocide, and a cumulative history of societal neglect, discrimination and injustice — underlies both endemic interpersonal violence and health disparities in Canada’s indigenous populations. There is no conversation to be had about one without a conversation about the other — if the aim is healing — because the root causes are the same.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently engaged in developing a global plan of action to strengthen the role of health systems in addressing interpersonal violence, particularly that involving women and girls.7 A draft report by the WHO acknowledges interpersonal violence as a strongly health-related issue that nevertheless requires a multisectoral response tailored to the specific context. Evidence from Aboriginal community models in Canada gives hope for healing.
  • A recent report from the Canadian Council on Social Determinants of Health highlighted important strides that some Aboriginal communities have made to address the root causes of, and to mitigate, inequities through efforts to restore the people’s connection with indigenous culture.8 Increasing community control over social, political and physical environments has been linked to improvements in health and health determinants.
  • The public health sector in many parts of Canada has embraced the need for strong community involvement in restoring Aboriginal people to the health that is their right. In many community-led projects over the past few decades, the health care sector has worked with others to address common proximal and distal determinants of disparities.
  • We are presented with not just an opportunity for renewing trust between indigenous communities and the Government of Canada but also for extending the roles of public health and the health care sector in the facilitation of trust and healing. There is much that the health sector can contribute to the forthcoming inquiry. Health Canada should be involved from the start to ensure that public health is properly represented
Irene Jansen

Region opens pre-surgical centre. Regina Leader Post. - 0 views

www.leaderpost.com/...story.html

privatization waits hospitals sk

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • The Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region unveiled its new pre-surgical centre
  • the health region has consolidated its services
  • The pre-surgical centre is located in Regina Centre Crossing, which is the old Superstore building
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Pre-admission clinics from the Regina General Hospital, Pasqua Hospital and the Surgical Assessment Clinic formerly housed in Anderson House moved into the new location in mid-October.
  • The centre is to offer pre-admission assessments and education services for surgical patients, including preparation for pre-operative tests and medical histories. It will also provide surgical assessment services such as bariatric, hip and knee, musculoskeletal and spine pathway clinics.
  • The $2.6-million centre was funded by Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health.
  • "You come here for the nurses to take your history, to get your paperwork done ahead of you (going) to the hospital," said Larrivee. "We provide education on what to expect when you will be going to the hospital in a couple weeks or a few days for your procedure. They will be doing their pre-operative, as well as, begin to do (the) post-op teaching so that you're prepared ahead of time for your procedure.
  • on average, about 9,000 patients
  • She said the region is looking at other services that can be moved out of the hospital
Govind Rao

The big lie - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|233683|sjet|20130810|175209518

from heather federal medicare accord ally union

shared by Govind Rao on 13 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • Govind Rao on 13 Aug 13
     
    The Telegram (St. John's) Sat Aug 10 2013 Page: A19 Section: Weekend Opinion Byline: Lana Payne Jim Flaherty, Stephen Harper's finance minister, has become a master storyteller. His latest tale, or at least the one his friends are spinning for him, is the deficit was caused by the great recession of 2009. Like every tale, there is a kernel of truth. This new version of history is necessary in order to perpetuate the falsehood that his government is a good manager of the economy. But this is not a deficit the government can blame on the great recession and the subsequent stimulus budget that followed. Rather, Canada's $18.7-billion deficit has it roots in failed economic policies, decisions made before the world financial crisis, including reckless corporate tax cuts. Remember, because the Conservatives would like us to forget, that this is a government that inherited $13 billion in surpluses. They quickly emptied the cupboard with one tax cut after another... We know that governments don't play hardball with big business. Indeed, our federal government saves all the hardball for the provinces. And the biggest piece of hardball is about to unfold over the next year as provinces tie themselves into knots trying to figure out how to pay for health care given the federal government edict. The current health accord ends in 2014 and Harper, with no consultations, has told the provinces to expect a lot less from Ottawa. After all, he has to pay for those corporate tax cuts. No money for health care, but lots for big business. Expect to be told that health care is unsustainable. That we can no longer afford it. Another big lie....
Govind Rao

Canada's Third World - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246199|ntgm|20150530|221593421

from heather aboriginal

shared by Govind Rao on 01 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • The Globe and Mail Sat May 30 2015
  • The legacy of our historical maltreatment of Canada's First Peoples persists with little hope of retreating into history, unless urgent action is taken by aboriginals and non-aboriginals alike (McLachlin: A History Of 'Cultural Genocide' - May 29). Our collective neglect and ignorance manifests itself in Third World conditions on reserves, rife with substandard health and education, substance abuse, suicide and existential pain. One can only hope Canadians will awaken to this tragedy and make it the election issue it's always deserved to be. Ross A. Smith, Toronto
Govind Rao

Resist the silent war on Canadian medicare - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|wifp|20150724|225529832

from heather accord medicare union

shared by Govind Rao on 24 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Winnipeg Free Press Fri Jul 24 2015
  • When universal health care was adopted in 1966 with the passage of the Medical Care Act, it signified a profound moment in Canadian political history. Rarely before had an alliance of ideologically opposed figures -- the socialist Tommy Douglas, Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker and Liberal prime minister Lester Pearson -- delivered legislation that would enshrine in collective consciousness the universal values of health and dignity; touchstones that still define this country and its society today.
  • Indeed, medicare is a fundamental pillar of Canadian identity. It projects our national values onto the world stage, delivers positive outcomes to patients and supports a vast infrastructure of globally recognized caregivers, physicians, researchers and front-line workers. It is also a system that relies heavily on federal funding and cash transfers.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • In 2004, the Health Accord was established as an agreement between the government and each province and territory. It provided all regions with stable funding to deliver adequate medical care that met national standards. The $41-billion pact was a response to deep cuts throughout the 1990s and aimed to address issues around wait times, pharmaceuticals and term care. For much of the past 10 years, federal support hovered around 23 per cent.
  • The accord rightly placed the government in a position of leadership on health care, one from which it could co-ordinate medical delivery and uphold common principles for all Canadians. Under the Harper government, however, the agreement began to erode. In 2011, three years before its expiry, the Conservatives announced major cuts to the Canada Health Transfer of $36 billion over a decade beginning in 2017. Instead of the traditional annual rise of six per cent, funding would now be based on the rate of growth of Canada's GDP.
  • Then, in 2012, after agreeing to extend monopoly drug patents to European countries in a far-reaching trade agreement, the government increased pharmaceutical costs to Canadians by an estimated $1 billion. Two years later, the Health Accord was not renewed; every province and territory was left on its own to determine how it will fund growing and aging populations into the uncertain future.
  • The retreat of the federal government from its position of authority on national health care is a troubling trend, one made all the more distressing in light of recent projections outlined in a report compiled by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. In the document, The Canada Health Transfer Disconnect, economist Hugh Mackenzie argues lower GDP growth estimates mean federal support for medicare will drop from 23 to 19 per cent by 2025. This represents a shortfall of $44 billion.
  • Based solely on GDP and distributed by population, the platform is "insensitive to the differences in the drivers of the costs of health care," Mackenzie writes. Most importantly, this includes an aging population. Within the next 25 years, the number of Canadians aged 65 and older will double, reaching a staggering 10 million.
  • The premiers want the Health Transfer increased to at least 25 per cent of all health-care spending. Without it, the provinces and territories will face insurmountable financial pressure. In real terms, this means fewer nurses, home care visits, primary care centres and long-term beds. Since the election of a Conservative majority government, taxes are at their lowest levels in more than half a century. In its myopic vision of deficit reduction and austerity, Ottawa now collects $45 billion less in revenue. It is no wonder the Canadian public is being told it cannot "afford" adequate levels of health-care funding.
  • Without negotiations in place to renew the Health Accord, Canada's most cherished public institution is at risk of crumbling at an inopportune historical moment of generational change. At worst, these changes signal the advent of a for-profit, two-tier system that favours the wealthy while driving up costs and delivering poorer outcomes for the rest. From the perspective of the private sector, after all, access to essential care is not based on need, but the ability to pay.
  • Hyper-partisanship is a symptom of an ailing democracy and should not be responsible for the erosion of an institution that protects basic human rights. It is therefore the responsibility of all Canadians to recall our shared history and uphold a just standard of public morality. Together we may continue to see our nation as Tommy Douglas envisaged it, "like a little jewel sitting at the top of the continent."
  • Harrison Samphir is an editor at Canadian Dimension Magazine and a graduate student preparing to study International Relations at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. hsamphir@gmail.com.
Govind Rao

Improving medication safety for the elderly - Healthy Debate - 0 views

healthydebate.ca/...medication-safety

from heather home care drugs seniors safety

shared by Govind Rao on 11 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Maria’s story isn’t unusual. The vast majority of Canada’s seniors, 92%, live in private households. About one quarter of people 65 and older live alone. With increasing life expectancies, a greater number of people are living with several chronic and progressive medical conditions. Close to 15% of Canadians aged 65 and older also live with at least some cognitive impairment – difficulties with their memory or completing daily activities such as banking and cooking.
  • Within Canadian hospitals, Best Possible Medication Histories (BPMHs) are increasingly becoming the standard of care. The process of creating BPMHs, primarily led by hospital pharmacists, help reconcile patients’ medications. Hospital pharmacists engage in an intensive process to interview patients, review all medications from home, and contact all pharmacies patients use in order to develop definitive prescription lists. If there are discrepancies between the medications a patient takes and a list their pharmacies provide, the hospital pharmacist often offers recommendations to physicians about how to manage those inconsistencies.
  • Home care organizations are also beginning to explore different ways to harness the expertise of different health professionals. Pharmacists, for example, have a knowledge base about medications that goes beyond their traditional roles of filling prescriptions and providing basic patient education. They can play critical roles within the community to reconcile medications and offer strategies to minimize “pill burden.”
Govind Rao

Aug 29 2014 Dr. Day story - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/...arrow_20140903_1411_ir7i_4.pdf

from heather Day private clinics privatization court bc

shared by Govind Rao on 03 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Govind Rao on 03 Sep 14
     
    Campbell River Courier-Islander  Fri Aug 29 2014  Page: A22  Section: News  Source: The Courier-Islander  A B.C. court case challenging the very foundations of public health care could undermine the comprehensiveness and fairness of Canadian medicare and erode the competitive advantage it provides to B.C. businesses. Dr. Brian Day, owner of two for profit clinics in Vancouver, was scheduled to start the next phase of his controversial case on Sept. 8 in B.C. Supreme Court, but was recently granted a sixmonth delay until next March. The case has been called the most significant constitutional challenge in Canadian history, as it seeks to introduce twotier health care into this country. It's likely to go as far as the Supreme Court of Canada, but what happens in B.C. will be crucial.
Govind Rao

Racism, Health, & What You Can Do About It | Wellesley Institute - 0 views

www.wellesleyinstitute.com/...ealth-what-you-can-do-about-it

from heather racism

shared by Govind Rao on 26 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • February 24, 2015
  • One of the main uses of history is to help us do better in the future. For my black history talk for Toronto Public Health I focused on initiatives that have been put in place to decrease the impact of racism on health. If you read a good idea here, steal it.
Govind Rao

Doctors v. government: the first major fight over pay - 0 views

www.cmaj.ca/...E146

from heather doctors wages cma

shared by Govind Rao on 16 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • CMAJ March 17, 2015 vol. 187 no. 5 First published February 9, 2015, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.109-4990
  • Roger Collier
  • Part II: Today’s contentious negotiations echo those from the battle over medicare a half-century ago Doctors refuse to compromise, says one side. The government cares more about its budget than patients, says the other side. Doctors have rejected a “very fair offer,” says a provincial health minister. Patients can’t wait for the government to balance its books, says a medical association. You know, this all sounds mighty familiar.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Much of the rhetoric thrown around today in scuffles between governments and physicians might ring a bell for students of medical history. More than 50 years ago, doctors were also accused of being too stubborn to accept changes to pay structure, and a provincial government was also charged with putting fiscal concerns before patient needs. Of course, if that old saying holds any merit — “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” — perhaps a refresher is in order. There seems, after all, to be a little bit of history repeating itself.
  • The origin of conflict between provincial governments and physicians can be summed up in one word: medicare. It therefore dates back to midnight of July 1, 1962, when the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act passed into law, introducing the first universal, government-run, single-payer health system to North America. All of one minute later, most of Saskatchewan’s doctors went on strike.
  • tually, to be precise, the fighting between the government and doctors in Saskatchewan began a couple of years earlier, during the 1960 provincial election. Premier Tommy Douglas had made universal health care the main peg of his re-election campaign. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan fiercely opposed the idea, contending that government interference in medicine would do far more harm than good.
  • A public battle ensued, pitting doctors against politicians. Debates were held, pamphlets were circulated, pledges were signed. Did the whole affair stay civil and free of propaganda? Well, you could say that. But only if you enjoy being wrong.
  • Let’s start with some of the literature circulated by opponents of medicare. One pamphlet, Political Medicine is Bad Medicine, was chockablock with scary warnings and seasoned with a liberal sprinkling of words in all-caps for emphasis. Red Tape! Skyrocketing costs! Inferior care! The premier’s plan “proposes a PERMANENT INFLEXIBLE GOVERNMENT SCHEME at a high cost” that would subject medicine “to POLITICAL considerations bearing no relation to your NEEDS.”
  • Then there was the infamous flyer — later used by Premier Douglas to shame his opponents, according to Saturday Night magazine — that suggested many doctors would flee the province if the medicare bill passed. “They’ll have to fill up the profession with the garbage of Europe,” read one excerpt, a quote from an anonymous doctor taken from the Toronto Telegram. “Some of the European doctors who come out here are so bad we wonder if they ever practised medicine.”
  • Later, some in the anti-medicare camp acknowledged that mistakes were made, passion had trumped reason, and the medical profession had suffered for engaging in political mudslinging. “Many doctors concede privately that they went too far, that the campaign lost them prestige in their communities,” reported Saturday Night magazine.
  • Of course, the premier was no stranger to rhetoric himself. In fact, according to some political commenters of the time, he was a master of the form. He accused the province’s physicians of using “abominable” and “despicable” tactics and pedalling “scurrilous trash.”
  • In the end, Douglas and his party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, won the election and pushed ahead with their health system plan. The doctors and government set aside their differences and all lived happily ever after. Yeah, right.
  • Medicare was coming to Saskatchewan — that battle was over — but physicians still weren’t cooperating with the government. They focused their efforts on changing sections of the proposed medicare act, specifically those that granted the government almost unlimited power to control the practice of medicine.
  • There was no provision for negotiation. The doctors would simply have to do what the government told them to do, and be paid what the government said they would be paid,” Dr. Marc Baltzan (1929–2005), a Saskatoon nephrologist and former president of the Canadian Medical Association, wrote in a 1984 article in Canadian Family Physician entitled, “Doctor/Government Fee Negotiations in Canada.”
  • After the act became law, unchanged, the province’s physicians closed their offices, though they still provided emergency services in hospitals. The standoff lasted 23 days, ending only after both sides compromised and signed the Saskatoon Agreement. The deal amended the act to ensure doctors would maintain their independence and could, if they wanted, opt out of medicare and bill patients directly.
  • The deal was brokered by Lord Stephen Taylor, a British doctor and politician who helped implement the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Later, reflecting on his Saskatchewan adventure, Taylor wrote that much of the animosity between the two parties arose because they did not understand each other at all. The government did not anticipate how much their plan would threaten the autonomy of a proud profession. Physicians “could not believe that the government was composed of honest and responsible people.”
  • Taylor, a man of both medicine and government, chose to take a dispassionate view of the conflict. “I see honest men on both sides, well motivated but mystified by the actions of their opponents.”
  • Decades later, debate over another act — the Canada Health Act, federal legislation adopted in 1984 — again showed just how differently government and physicians can view a change to how doctors are paid. This time, the government was putting an end to extra billing by physicians. But according to Baltzan, as mentioned in his Canada Family Physician article cited above, this was merely a “political euphemism” for banning a patient’s right to be reimbursed by the government when billed directly by a doctor.
  • In his lament over the passing of the “deceitful bill,” Baltzan suggested that it was important to revisit the original fight over medicare in Saskatchewan because “it shows that there is nothing new under the sun: it contains all the elements of physician–government confrontation that have been replayed again and again during the Canada Health Act debate.”
  • Now, more than 30 years later, it might not be a stretch to say there is still nothing new under the sun regarding negotiations between doctors and government. When things go bad, as they have in Ontario, both sides sometimes resort to a little time-tested rhetoric. Then again, though some of the messages sound familiar, other elements of physician–government showdowns have changed since 1962. For one, doctors back then didn’t have Twitter accounts.
Govind Rao

Giroux warns against P3 model - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246243|nbng|20150124|213091521

from heather p3 hospital Ontario cupe

shared by Govind Rao on 27 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • The North Bay Nugget Sat Jan 24 2015
  • The president of the North Bay and District Labour Council is warning against a proposed public-private partnership that could see a new sports facility constructed in North Bay. Henri Giroux issued a release Friday responding to a request for expressions of interest recently issued by Canadore College seeking a private-sector company to build, finance and operate a multi-purpose sports facility at its Commerce Court Campus. A wise per-s on studies history to avoid repeating costly mistakes," said Giroux, pointing to a recent report by Auditor- General Bonnie Lysyk. It's truly stunning that Canadore College and the city seem to have learned nothing from Ontario's P3 mistakes, even though the $8-billion history lesson just came out in November's auditor-report." Lysyk's report found that public- private partnerships have cost Ontario taxpayers nearly $8 billion more on infrastructure over the past nine years than if the government had successfully built the projects itself.
  • The report indicated companies pay about 14 times what the government does for financing, and that they receive a premium from taxpayers in exchange for taking on the project. The college proposes a public- private partnership to build a new sports facility. Sounds nice -a great facility without the cost and risk of building and running it yourself," said Giroux. But that myth and our reality with P3s is very different." He suggested North Bay is learning about the costs of P3s first-hand via cuts at North Bay Regional Health Centre. He said the hospital is closing beds and slashing services, in no small part because of long-term P3 agreements for mortgage payments and maintenance fees." If Canadore goes ahead with a P3 sports complex, it is the students who will pay for it through high user and tuition fees," said Giroux. If we want public infrastructure, let's do it right from the beginning and not waste money on the same old mistakes."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Interested proponents have have until Jan. 28 to submit their expressions of interest to the college. Canadore president and chief executive officer George Burton could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. But the 14-page request issued earlier this month indicates the city is supporting the P3 initiative. The Corporation of the City of North Bay wishes to investigate a partnership with Canadore College through a private-public partnership in relation to a twin-pad arena option," the document states. With the support from the City of North Bay, Canadore College is seeking a partner to build, finance and operate a multi-purpose sports facility. The successful proponent is expected to enter into a long-term land lease arrangement where a multipurpose facility would be constructed." The college is looking for the facility to offer a turf field, twin ice pads, rubberized flooring, a walking or jogging track, concessions and change rooms. Some of the activities Canadore would like these facilities to accommodate include soccer, hockey, figure skating, ringette, rugby, touch football, ultimate Frisbee, basketball, volleyball, baseball, tennis, weight room and golf. The facility would service the local and regional communities, as well as Canadore College students.
Govind Rao

SEIU: Immigrant Families Have Justice, History On Their Side | Common Dreams | Breaking... - 0 views

www.commondreams.org/...ave-justice-history-their-side

from heather us migrant worker legislation

shared by Govind Rao on 18 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Tuesday, February 17, 2015
  • WASHINGTON - Following U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's ruling against President Obama's immigration action, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Executive Vice President, Rocio Saenz, issued this response: "Immigrant families remain on a path to justice. This ruling--issued by a lone, out-of-touch judge, singularly sought out by extremist Republican governors and attorney generals--is a temporary disappointment, but in no way a permanent setback.
Govind Rao

2014 Health Care Accord | The Council of Canadians - 0 views

canadians.org/2014accord

from heather campaign ally cupe accord

shared by Govind Rao on 10 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Council of Canadians staff, board members and chapter activists joined representatives from the Canadian Health Coalition for a lobby action on Parliament Hill late last year.
  • Canada is facing an important next step in our medicare history. In 2014, the current health care accord – the deal that sets funding and health care service delivery agreements between the federal and provincial and territorial governments – expires and must be renegotiated. The federal government is ignoring the calls of the provinces and territories to work on a deal, and shockingly announced $36 billion worth of health care cuts which will come into effect after the next federal election in 2015.
  • Canada is facing an important next step in our medicare history. In 2014, the current health care accord – the deal that sets funding and health care service delivery agreements between the federal and provincial and territorial governments – expired. The federal government continues to ignore calls by the provinces and territories to work on a deal, and shockingly announced $36 billion worth of health care cuts which will come into effect after the next federal election in 2015.
Govind Rao

Close to 20,000 sign union's anti-P3 petition - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246243|relp|20151117|233840207

from heather p3 hospital union Saskatchewan campaign

shared by Govind Rao on 17 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • The Leader-Post (Regina) Tue Nov 17 2015
  • Raise your hand if you've heard this phrase before: on time and on budget. Those five words are oft repeated as governments - in Saskatchewan and elsewhere - defend publicprivate partnership (P3) funding models. "On time and on budget has been a really powerful message," says Matti Siemiatycki, a professor of urban planning at the University of Toronto.
  • On Monday, the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) delivered a petition to the government calling for the end of privatization. Close to 20,000 people signed the petition, which criticizes the government's use of P3s. Under the P3 model in Saskatchewan, nine elementary schools, a long-term care home in Swift Current, a hospital in North Battleford and the Regina Bypass are being built. SFL president Larry Hubich said the petition is one of the largest in the province's history, and is meant to help "raise awareness around the deals that are going on under the guise of public-private partnerships." Since arriving in Saskatchewan a few years ago, P3s have been controversial.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Recent polling suggests the majority of people living in this province support P3s, but, as demonstrated by the SFL's petition, there is still opposition. While still relatively new here - none of the P3-funded projects are completed yet - the controversy is not unique to Saskatchewan. Ontario and British Columbia have used P3s for much longer than Saskatchewan. The debate remains polarized across the country. "It really depends on how the deals are structured," he said. "There is no such thing as sort of 'the P3 model'. In fact, there's any number of different approaches and because of that it varies in terms of impact on both the construction side of the equation and then the operation and maintenance."
  • Instead of an ideological battle, which has largely dominated any discussion of P3s in Saskatchewan, Siemiatycki said each project should be evaluated by itself to decide whether or not a P3 model is the best option. "It's really not a cut-and-dry issue," he said. "It really depends on the experience in the jurisdiction and what specific deals are coming down the pipe." Where P3s have a longer history, Siemitaycki said public debate over P3s is already starting to change. "I think the debate is now shifting to under what conditions should we use them, and what specific model should be used," he said. dfraser@postmedia.com twitter.com/dcfraser
  • Bryan Schlosser, Regina Leader-Post / The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour delivered a petition at the Legislative Building on Monday. The petition calls for an end to privatization in Saskatchewan and criticizes the government's use of public-private partnership funding models.
1 - 20 of 119 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page