The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health website has a diagram showing the ten steps patients take on their path through diagnostic imaging in the public health care system. I decided to take a different path. During an appointment with my family doctor I told her that I was willing and able to leave the province to access a [...]
If you’re a drug addict who wants a clean needle and a supervised injection site where you can shoot up your body with drugs; you have Insite in British Columbia. If you’re a prostitute who wants the security of a house from which to sell your body for sex; you’ll soon have brothels in Ontario. [...]
The government of Saskatchewan is choosing 86 patients with multiple sclerosis from a pool of more than 650 applicants hoping for a spot in a US clinical trial for the Liberation Treatment. Since its debut in 2009, many Canadian MS patients have travelled thousands of miles and paid thousands of dollars to access this treatment in the [...]
The most frequently accessed information on the site this year indicates a growing interest in the big picture view of Canadian health care. To help us understand this bigger picture we must keep looking at the answers to some important questions. Why is our current health care system unsustainable? Why do politicians and health care bureaucrats decide what type and [...]
My body starts convulsing; my blood pressure continues to drop. I’m exhausted and weak. This is it I think to myself. I’m not going to make it. There’s a call for help and a doctor rushes into the room. Her voice booms orders as she takes control of the situation, “OK guys, ABCs,” she says [...]
I know how difficult it can be for a patient trying to navigate our public health care system in search of access to high quality care or some accountability for the lack thereof. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for the doctors, nurses and other health care providers forced to work within [...]
One of Saskatchewan’s former premiers, Roy Romanow, recently spoke out about the federal government’s plans regarding future health care funding for Canadian provinces. With limits being set on the federal dollars available for health care, provinces will be forced to explore and expand alternatives to government delivery of medical services. Romanow’s staunch defence of a universal, government-run health [...]
One of the dangers of socialized medicine is that population health and minimizing public health care costs always trump what’s best for individual patients. As part of its harm reduction program the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is now handing out crack pipe kits to drug addicts in Vancouver. This is in addition to funding and operating a supervised [...]
An editorial on Parking-centred health care recently appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Dr. Rajendra Kale, a neurologist in Ottawa, shares his views about the unfairness of patients having to pay for parking while at the hospital. He believes that parking fees are a barrier to health care and can interfere with the quality [...]
Charles Cruden volunteers much of his time to advocating on issues of concern to seniors. He’s deeply concerned about the sustainability of the Canadian health care system. Over the last few years he’s dedicated many hours to compiling publicly available information on administrative costs within his health region in Manitoba. With nearly thirty years of [...]