Need better education to keep up with the fast pace of innovation
Canada’s nursing school graduates are not as ready as they should be for the digital transformation happening in health care, according to a University of Alberta researcher. Nurses need better education to keep up with the fast pace of innovation – from robots at the bedside to virtual care and virtual reality treatments to electronic…
Failings of the health system are not due to chronic underfunding
If Quebec voters have one concern during the current election campaign, and just about every election campaign for decades now, it’s the health-care system. Contrary to what many commentators have been claiming for years, the failings of the health system are not due to “chronic underfunding.” For this reason, the notion that lower taxes would…
There is nothing that bureaucracy cannot make worse
Bureaucracy begats bureaucracy, building its own demand and transforming people into managers designed to meet bureaucratic needs. A bureaucracy designed to serve patients ends up serving its creators instead and protects those who work inside. Economist William Niskanen offered a definition of bureaucracies in his book Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Roughly speaking, he says, 1)…
Offer a small step to solving overconsumption and waste
Twenty-eight countries have universal healthcare. Twenty-two of them have some form of cost sharing. User fees offer one example. User fees work best as a small, flat fee paid at the point of service. Even a few dollars discourage (rational) people from booking an appointment for what they asked twice previously. User fees shorten the line…
A new report recommends a person only drink an average of zero to two alcoholic drinks per week
Looks like Canadians are drinking way too much alcohol. According to a recent report from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) which includes the assessment of over 5,000 different past studies on alcohol consumption from around the world, our country’s alcohol drinking guidelines need to be significantly reduced. The report recommends a…
Political expediency once again trumps the realities of fixing health care
Canada’s health-care system continues to implode and fail Canadian patients at a catastrophic level. Systemic problems and staffing issues are overwhelming health care delivery, and people are dying from a lack of proper care. Daily news reports now relate the most egregious dysfunctions as patients sought help and instead found themselves in a chaotic system…
More money won’t solve the systemic, pervasive, and structural issues that plague Canadian health care
Hospital staffing in Ontario is in crisis – as it is in Alberta, British Columbia, and the rest of Canada. Provinces are responding with what they perceive as solutions: Ontario is fast-tracking foreign-trained nurses, and Alberta has made the interprovincial movement of professionals easier. But while these moves will help reduce the red tape surrounding…
Do we or the government own our bodies?
Former B.C. deputy minister of health Lawrie McFarlane’s July 24 commentary on the “Cambie Surgery Centre ruling” (a descriptive that ignores two cancer patients and three children who were co-plaintiffs) contained some valid commentary. The crisis we now face in our health system is there for all to see and observe. Notably, McFarlane offers no solutions.…
It’s time to stop talking about money and start talking about changing health care
It has been a revealing week for Canadian health care and what we have witnessed is not good. In Fredericton, NB, a senior passed away while waiting for care at a hospital emergency department. A witness noted that the man was “clearly in discomfort,” yet it wasn’t enough to gain the attention of health-care workers.…
Drastic changes are needed. Millions of Canadians on wait lists know that. Why don't politicians?
Drastic changes are needed if we are to repair the Canadian health-care system. Millions of Canadians waiting for medically-necessary surgeries and procedures already know that. It’s time for the rest of us to catch up and start advocating for change. At least five million Canadians are without a family doctor. More than one million Canadians…