Health, health care system, pharmacare

Subscribe to Health, health care system, pharmacare
Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press May 1, 2023 Although recent media coverage of our healthcare and education problems here in Manitoba has been very good and quite wide-ranging, one particularly important piece of the puzzle has been consistently missing. That missing piece is the social determinants of health. There is strong scientific evidence, going back decades and covering most countries in the world, that socio-economic factors play a particularly important role in determining people’s health and level of educational attainment.
For years, Manitoba’s network of community organizations and public health and harm reduction experts have made the case for the introduction of supervised consumption sites in Manitoba. There are evidence-based models of care that will work for Manitoba.
The Convoy that took over Ottawa for a month last year just met outside Winnipeg this past weekend. While the right to protest is an essential part of our democracy, it is important to look critically at this movement that has harboured white supremacist, libertarian and in some cases even fascist beliefs.  These ideas have originated most recently in the USA, but have a long and odious history elsewhere in the world.
Click here to read the full report. As emergency rooms are overwhelmed, surgery wait times continue to lengthen, and under-resourced childrens’ hospitals face surges related to viral infections like COVID, the  provincial and territorial governments have accepted the federal government’s new health care funding deal. But there’s more than meets the eye with this deal.
Manitoba’s the Disability Support Act establishes a framework for providing financial assistance outside the Employment and Income Assistance (EIA) system to persons with prolonged and severe disabilities. This fall, the government is considering draft regulations for the new program.
The unmitigated, seasonal, and repeated spread of COVID-19 is forecasting disaster as a mass disabling event. Not only does it represent the ableist exclusion of immunocompromised Canadians, many of whom will have become so as a result of the pandemic itself, it also suggests a continuous hemorrhaging of workers through chronic illness in already tight labour pools. Research shows that structural answers can help mitigate some of the risk, and get us closer to achieving a Canada that’s accessible to all: We have to fix the air we breathe.
Wendy Nur, Jodi Dueck-Read, and Jerry Buckland  
(Vancouver) Health authority contracts with for-profit surgical and diagnostic imaging clinics topped $393 million between 2015/16 and 2020/21 – with total annual payments increasing by 57 per cent over that period. That’s according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - BC Office and BC Health Coalition analyzing public financial documents.
In this issue:  Putting continuity in continuing care Nova Scotia's homecare system needs more public funding and oversight Priorities that should have been reflected in the Nova Scotia 2022-23 budget Reflections on public provision and radical revisioning of responsibility Homelessness during a pandemic  Nova Scotia health plan leaves out reproductive health  Action needed to address the low-waged economy 2022 Gala save the date
The loss of abortion rights in the U.S. has spurned new debate here in Canada. In the Free Press op ed “A key question in the abortion debate” (July 8), Carl DeGurse, in launching an argument against abortion, writes about his being conceived to young parents prior to their marriage.