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 [...]

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 [...]

Last week I attended the Vancouver town hall on rebuilding Medicare. It’s one of five public events, make that six with the recent addition of Québec City, being hosted by the Canadian Medical Association and Maclean’s magazine. Many people, including some doctors and nurses, are calling for an expansion of Medicare to provide coverage for [...]

The heads of the Canadian Medical Association, the Alberta Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association and a former president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees all served as panelists at the Edmonton town hall on rebuilding Medicare held on March 29, 2011. Although it didn’t turn out to be as interesting as other recent events involving Alberta doctors, [...]

The Canadian Medical Association and Maclean’s magazine held a town hall in Toronto on March 1, 2011, to discuss rebuilding Medicare. The remaining ones will be held in Edmonton, Vancouver, and lastly, Ottawa also home to the first SOS Medicare conference in 1979. It’s hard to believe that more than three decades have passed and we are still looking for ways [...]

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 [...]

The Canadian government talks a good talk when it comes to preventative health care but let’s face it, in order to be preventative it has to be timely. My husband Cameron lost his father to esophageal cancer last year. With a family history of cancer and symptoms of heartburn he decides to see his doctor about [...]

A year after the death of her mother Frances, Mimi and Blake found that many of their questions were left unanswered and their concerns about the pitfalls of Manitoba’s Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) dismissed. They soon realized that a twofold approach would be needed to achieve their goals of finding answers and improving the [...]

People from countries around the world gathered in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2002 to advocate for the right of individuals to access information held by government and for greater government transparency. Their efforts are now internationally recognized on Right to Know Day held annually on September 28th. Canada is celebrating Right to Know Day as part [...]

The province of Quebec is now funding in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. Proponents of government coverage for fertility treatments claim the decision will not only benefit patients but will also provide some cost savings to the Canadian health care system. However, the true cost of this decision remains to be seen.   The increased demand for publicly funded IVF treatments is bound to create [...]