Group items tagged

October 13, 2015

by Danny Cavanagh

There is no budget crisis in Nova Scotia, says Danny Cavanagh, president of CUPE Nova Scotia. On the contrary, Nova Scotia is expected to record a surplus as early as next year.

The Canadian government is planning on making significant cuts to the Interim Federal Health program, which will result in many refugees in Canada losing access to primary health care services and medications to treat their illnesses.

Sign the petition to ask Jason Kenny, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism to stop the pending changes to the Interim Federal Health program that will deny thousands of refugees in Canada access to primary health care and medications.

For more information see the following links: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/andre-picard/cutting-health-care-for-asylum-seekers-makes-no-sense/article2432183/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Life&utm_content=2432183 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/op-ed/attack+vulnerable+refugees/6588508/story.html http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/outside/coverage.asp

Dean BakerTruthout, April 5, 2016

It looks like the major media outlets are doing their full court press to lay the groundwork for the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In recent weeks the news and opinion pages have been filled with articles and columns on the wonders of trade and why all good people should support trade deals like the TPP.  

May 27, 2016

One health record. Making care delivery easier for health-care providers. Safer health care. These are the claims Island Health has made publicly for its new electronic health-record system iHealth, introduced initially at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in March and intended to roll out across Vancouver Island in the coming months. These are goals physicians share — many of whom enthusiastically use electronic records in their clinics. Despite “bumps in the road,” Island Health claims the implementation of the system is going well.

May 31, 2016

The Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights Canada (CMWRC) has organized #StatusNow actions across Canada to demand immediate permanent resident status for all migrant workers.

TFWP: Conservative overhaul makes workers more disposable, vulnerable

Confounding expectations, in December 2011, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a unilateral renewal of federal health funding.

This unanticipated federal generosity leaves the provinces with the ability to manage federal health care dollars as they choose.

It also deprives them of the federal government as a convenient scapegoat.

the Canada Health Act is incompatible with a number of policy options that have been successfully implemented in other countries

If the provinces are to proceed with meaningful reform, the act will have to be revised

cost-sharing, allowing private parallel health care, employing privately owned and operated surgical facilities and hospitals to deliver universally accessible care, and using independent insurers to operate the universal insurance scheme

Vancouver Sun Thu May 28 2015

Re: Ambulance negotiation a strange conflict of interest, Opinion, Web only, May 25 Susan Martinuk displays a shocking ignorance of how unions work. She misrepresents the purpose of essential services in the context of collective bargaining. Essential service orders determine what services are necessary for public safety, and ensure base levels of services are provided, while at the same time encouraging employers to continue bargaining with the un

There is no irony the former president of CUPE 873, now a staff representative, is advocating for SN Transport workers. It was never their work he had declared "disastrous" to B.C. health care, but the attempt by the Liberal government to privatize more health care services.

By Colleen Fuller — National Newswatch — Aug 18 2015

Of all the outrageous things U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said this summer, trust the Fraser Institute to single out his only accurate observation, that “single payer [health care] works in Canada.” In an August 11 op-ed in National Newswatch, the institute’s Jason Clemens and Baccus Barua argue Trump got it wrong. Canada’s health care system is “middling at best,” they say, and “among the most expensive among the OECD countries.” Is this true?

Our low public and high private spending patterns go some way to explaining why we are experiencing some of the problems identified in the second study cited by Clemens and Baccus, the Commonwealth Fund.

By Barbara Cape, The Starphoenix October 30, 2014

Premier Brad Wall's recent musing about private, for-profit options for MRIs in Saskatchewan led to a flurry of public commentary and a predictable throne speech last week.There are certainly problems with timely access to MRIs and other diagnostic tests in Saskatchewan, but patients and voters need to have access to factual information that will enable them to make fully informed choices about how best to respond to these challenges.

23 March 2015

THUNDER BAY – OP-ED – A federal election could be called any time in the next few months, judging by the media coverage and the ramping up of political activity. Many issues have been crowding into the media headlines in anticipation of the election — but with a notable absence of any consideration of healthcare by our political parties. Apparently the subject is still on the minds of the electorate though, at least amongst my own circle of friends, colleagues and neighbours, many of whom note the leading edge of our baby-boomers have now turned 65. A good starting point could be an overlooked recommendation in the Romanow Report (#5) tabled in 2002, which suggested that our Canada Health Act needs to be both modernized and strengthened in order to reify the principles of public administration, universality and accessibility. The recommendation also suggests we need to update the comprehensiveness of our health system and create a new principle of accountability.

Robert Y. McMurtry is an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca, an active orthopedist and formerly Dean of Medicine at Western University and Assistant Deputy Minister of Health Canada. He was a special medical advisor to the Royal Commission of the Future of Health Care in Canada (Romanow Commission).