April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

health care

“Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time”

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Well had to clear off a few cobwebs but otherwise the blog seems to be standing.

I can’t believe this weather first it rains then it pours then it thunderstorms then it rains again. The sun came out and it was still raining. Must be monsoon season.

Shona Holmes is making the rounds lying for the GOP. A commentator after this article backs her up. One never knows if it is just your garden variety moron or a plant but re his assertion “In Canada, I was put on a year-long waiting list to see a knee specialist.” Either he really doesn’t need it badly or has the same relation to the truth Holmes has. My husband got a referral from the local clinic and was in seeing the surgeon within two weeks. When he has the arrangements made and is ready to go for surgery it will be 3 months from decision to procedure.

I’ve seen 3 specialists within the last year and quite the opposite from being denied procedures I have put a couple off while I consider if I want to undergo them.

When we took my son to emerg with a scare he saw a ped within an hour and the emerg was packed that day.

Our system may not be perfect but one only has to look to dentistry to see how private health care would work.

To support our health care system visit the Canadian Health Care Coalition

* sorry for the rambling post.

Myth Busters – Health Care Edition

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Andre Maddison a master’s student in Community Health and Epidemiology is one of two winners of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation’s 2009 Mythbusters Award. He received the award based on his research into whether or not primary care or non-urgent patients are really causing overcrowding and long wait times in Emergency rooms. Turns out while there is some impact it is not the primary cause.

“I started with the view that due to a shortage of family doctors, people are going to emergency departments and overcrowding them,” explains Mr. Maddison, a native of Sarnia, Ont. “But in reality, why EDs are overcrowded wasn’t known.”

While 40 to 50 per cent of cases in the ER are non-urgent patients, after extensive literature research and speaking with physicians, Mr. Maddison found that primary care patients were not overly burdensome. His research illustrated that patients in urgent need of acute-care, admitting beds, extended stay, specialists and other high demand care needs actually have a greater impact on overcrowding. “We can’t discount the affect of so many non-urgent patients, but they are certainly not the main part of the problem.”

Mr. Maddison believes it’s a system level problem, not isolated to the ED. “Emergency department overcrowding is a national problem with potentially devastating effects,” he says. “It is rooted in insufficient physical and human resources and poor integration within and between hospitals.” He went on to say that to best care for both urgent and non-urgent patients effectively, we must determine the purpose of EDs in order to best serve the patients, health care professionals, communities and the country.

Another political talking point shot down in flames.

SOURCE

Blood test for Down’s Syndrome in the Works.

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Image via Wikipedia

A test is in the works which will identify Down syndrome earlier in pregnancy. This is great news for parents. For those that would make the choice to abort the earlier timeline means an easier procedure.

And for parents who choose to carry to term it means no risk of miscarriage. Some women choose not to get tested at all since they would carry the pregnancy anyway. For these women the test represents a way to be fully informed and have to become educated and set up support systems before the birth.

While it used to be assumed that children with Down’s syndrome had no ability to learn or to integrate into society, through the efforts and advocacy of parents and support workers this attitude has changed and now many children with Down’s are managing well.

Of course there are many degrees of severity and not all are so lucky.

Though some have raised the spectre of eugenics with this test it simply replaces invasive technologies already available.

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Mike Harris the Sequel

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Great post at Interrobang’s Internationale on what we can expect from a Harper government.

Here’s what you are voting for, if you mark that ballot for your local CPC candidate:

* fewer and less stringent food and water inspections — Walkerton: The Sequel, coming soon to your town!

* the further demotion of women to a “special interest group” (Does The Smirking Corpse not have a mother?)

* allowing the continued abrogation of the Treaty of 1814 by the US government without so much of a murmur of protest (Hey, Corpsey, you’re all about northern sovereignty; what about southern sovereignty? What about that “longest undefended border” thing? Are we not into doing that anymore? If so, I demand you arm the rest of the border, to keep the Americans out.)

* an economic plan guaranteed to cause further rising income inequality

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Lets not forget Harris also ran besweatered father knows best, aren’t I just the most docile little thing ads before he got into power and kicked everyone and their kids who didn’t belong to the right income group. In fact Harper has already begun this process, see list of just some of the Harper cut & run government decimation here.

Harper on Health Care;
In his 2002 Throne Speech Reply, Stephen Harper said: “A government monopoly is not the only way to deliver health care to Canadians. … It (the federal government) must remove any barriers, any chill to increase private capital investment plans that the provinces have for our health-care system.” Parkland Institute

Harper on Kyoto;
“Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations,” CBC

Harper Government on Women;
Took out equality from SWC mandate, banned lobbying and research for SWC, originally cut budget by 5 million, called Belinda Stronach a dog by McKay further fueled by Norman Spector saying “Bitch is a word I would use to describe someone like Belinda Stronach.”

Some background on the real Harper
It’s amazing what you can persuade them (party members) to do once you convince them it’s the leader who is telling them.”

The Conservative leader is totally enamoured with the U.S., supportive of the Iraq war and ballistic missile defence (despite his coyness), admires U.S. President George W. Bush, detests social programs and the equality principle that drives them, and is a proud believer in America’s culture of possessive individualism. As such, he is more at odds with Canadians’ values than any national party leader in 60 years. Handing over the reigns of government to a man who has contempt for his own country would be a catastrophic mistake. Scandal or no scandal, Canadians need to keep their eye on the prize: the future of their country.{NOTE:and there has been scandal}

There is a war on Canadian soil. It is a war to replace traditional Canadian social values with neocon disregard for justice, for rights and for community. Fight back with your vote.

“He’s doing politics, we’re doing health care”

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Quote from Robert Ouellet.
“Robert Ouellet a radiologist in Montreal, said safe injection sites are an important point of entry for addicts into the health care system. He said the goal is harm reduction — by lowering the risk of disease transmission through dirty needles — as well as by providing education about drug addiction”.
Source

Health Minister Tony Clement does what ReformaCons do best, try to win by smearing your opponent. Of course when the case you are making has no real basis in fact, smear tactics are what’s left.
This time it is doctors who support Insite who are getting slammed.

“Is it ethical for health-care professionals to support the administration of drugs that are of unknown substance, or purity or potency — drugs that cannot otherwise be legally prescribed?”
In any other medical setting, supervised overdoses would be considered “highly unprofessional,”

So are we meant to nod our heads in agreement that many Canadian doctors are both unethical and unprofessional? This is though the same government who wants politicians not doctors to decide what can/should/will be done with women’s reproductive concerns. Little wonder then that they have no hesitancy in purporting to know more about how to treat addicts than health care professionals.

Clement goes on to talk about continued efforts at addiction treatment, however, treatment has many facets such as dealing with underlying issues of addiction and life changes. Many addicts are poor and/or homeless and often have some sort of background of abuse or mental health issues. This are issues that need to be addressed long before what are often shame based treatments are considered.

In any case the lock ’em all up crowd of which the Cons are part, see prison as the treatment for addiction. War on Drugs™ and all that. The major source of concern is more likely that places such as Insite humanize rather than demonize those with addiction.

Canada’s New Government™ is old, stale and mouldy and needs to be thrown out like last months bread.

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