HEALTH CARE

November 15, 2007

The Ontario government has established a new women’s health agency, Echo. President Linda MacGregor sent a letter concerning Echo to Premier McGuinty. Echo, the women’s health agency replacing the Women’s Health Council, will conduct, fund and partner on research initiatives in women's health; provide input to government policy, in collaboration with stakeholders, to improve the health status of women, and promote the provision of accessible, effective and equitable care for women; collect and distribute information on women's health through a variety of communication tools and services and advise the minister on health issues affecting women

More information can be found at http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2007/08/24/c9967.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html

The regulation establishing it can be found at http://www.canlii.org/on/laws/regu/2007r.85/20071015/whole.html

February 3, 2006

From the Ontario Council Pre-Budget Brief:

As in previous years, CFUW/Ontario Council members continue to overwhelmingly support maintaining the five principles of the Canada Health Act - public, comprehensive, universal, portable and accessible - and for a system that is accountable to the public. We expect the Government of Ontario to maintain these principles in its federal provincial negotiations and when it considers type of health care funding.

CFUW has policy that supports Building on Values: the Final Report of Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, better know as the Romanow Report.  CFUW Ontario Council supports innovation rather than privatization for the delivery of health care services.  Health policy advisers like Dr. Colleen Flood and Dr. Michael Rachlis have stressed that quality, innovation, coordination, training, education and prevention, rather than privatization is what is required by the Canadian health system.

We commend the government on their initiatives this past year in Health Care, including the $40 million to be used to retain nurses.  We are concerned that the money provided to health care institutions will not reach the experienced nurses and not result in the desired retention of these much needed health care professionals. 

We will continue to watch the development of the Local Health Integration Networks. In theory, being able to plan, co-ordinate, integrate, and fund the delivery of health services at the community level is an ideal situation for patient and health care, but the practical application might be more problematic. We have concerns about accountability, contracting out and the possible privatization of all and any services.

Like most Ontarians, CFUW/Ontario Council has learned with concern about the health care front line staffing shortages, with the Ontario Medical Association in a November 2005 report projecting a doctor shortage of about 2400.  We have also read with concern in a report by the National Post (Feb. 18,2005) of the problems of internationally trained doctors who cannot qualify to enter residency programmes, noting that immigration can only hope to add a small number of medical staff.

January 14, 2006

Standing Committees meeting:

CHAOULLI v QUEBEC UPDATE

Dr. Colleen Flood, New Zealand-born associate professor of law at University of Toronto and a student of comparative health care policy, gave a scathing critique of the recent Supreme Court Chaoulli decision overturning Quebec's ban on private health insurance.

She cites great uncertainty caused by the even split among the judges, and acknowledges that some see the Supreme Court as heroes, and some as villains. She feels that the Court got it wrong, and that while the decision might be good as law, it is not good public policy. She faults the Court for ignoring the policy research done by Romanow and Kirby, both of whom recommend a single-pay system.

Dr. Flood concentrated her remarks on wait times, and noted that countries with combined public and private health care, (New Zealand, Spain, U.K., Ireland), have longer wait times than ours, and in countries with short wait times (France, U.S.) it is because many cannot access medical care at all. Wait times are determined by a shortage of doctors and nurses, and training new personnel for the pool is lengthy and expensive; in trying to recruit from other countries we are in competition with others who can pay more.

Her criticisms of private care:

1. Private care tends to cover only the "easy" things - hip and knee replacements, etc., leaving the "hard" things to the public system
2. Governments can fix wait lists by better organization
3. Essential care should be on the basis of need, not ability to pay.