Did you watch the live broadcast of the Canadian Medical Association’s town hall held on January 26, 2011, in Halifax, Nova Scotia?  First of all, the title of the event “Health Care in Canada: Time to Rebuild Medicare” makes me wonder how many members of Canadian Doctors for Medicare are sitting on the organizing committee. I thought [...]

The Canadian Medical Association in partnership with Maclean’s magazine is holding a number of public town halls titled “Health Care in Canada: Time to Rebuild Medicare”. The public is invited to attend these events and join some of Canada’s leading health professionals to discuss Canadian health care reform. The first event is scheduled for January 26, [...]

Three’s a crowd when government prohibits you from spending your own money on health care. In Canada, our provincial and territorial governments decide which medically necessary services will be paid for and how patients can access them. It’s true that the party paying the bill gets to call the shots. The Saskatchewan government recently contracted [...]

Many Canadians have shared their health care stories with us this year. Each of these stories provides valuable insight into the realities facing patients and their families. All of them highlight the need for changes to our health care system. We encourage you to visit the site often to read the latest news, views and [...]

Canadian patients wait on lists for appointments with specialists, diagnostic tests, treatments, and surgeries. Over the years, government has spent billions of dollars on special initiatives and projects directed at reducing wait times. In 2004, federal, provincial and territorial governments agreed to set benchmarks for wait times. Since then, results indicate that many Canadian patients [...]

The contract between Dr. Stephen Duckett and Alberta Health Services is now terminated. Dr. Duckett came from Australia to assume the position of president and chief executive officer of the health superboard in March 2009. On November 19, 2010 after an urgent meeting about reducing emergency wait times he chose to continue eating his cookie rather than speak to [...]

The Globe and Mail newspaper is featuring a series of articles on Canadian health care. I find the online comments to these articles most interesting. Many people are defending our current health care system based on the political promises of Medicare and not the realities facing Canadian patients. Here’s a quick reality check: Equal access based [...]

Results of the latest Nanos Poll show that health care is once again the top national issue for Canadians. If you have ever taken a good hard look at the Canadian health care system you can understand why. Despite political promises and annual injections of federal and provincial tax dollars, our universal health care system [...]

The CTV news program W5 recently aired “Silent Treatment” a story about the struggles encountered by two Newfoundland families trying to access medical information following the death of a family member. I believe many Canadian patients and their families can readily identify with this story. Situations involving medical errors and access to medical information are occurring [...]

Earlier this week the federal, provincial and territorial health ministers met in Newfoundland to discuss important issues facing the Canadian health care system. One of the issues receiving attention is the amount of salt Canadians are consuming in their diet. Health Canada’s Sodium Working Group released a report in July 2010 titled Sodium Reduction Strategy [...]