Funding

Medical libraries are essential. So why are we imposing cuts on them?

Health-care providers should be spending their time treating patients, not hunting for resources. Medical libraries and their staff are essential for supporting their work.

Governments should pay the high price of gene therapy

For the first time in history, Health Canada has approved a gene therapy treatment for people with Hemophilia B. But gene therapy is not cheap. Canada needs to step in and help fund these treatments.

Financial side-effects of treatment can be devastating in our ‘free’ health-care system

Health-care providers must also begin to take proactive steps to ensure that patients are not only aware of the medical side effects of their care and treatments, but the financial side effects, too.

Nurses know the ‘Your Health Act’ is anything but good for your health

Bill 60 has alarmed and horrified Ontario nurses and other health-care providers. Allowing private companies to profit from people’s health-care needs will not solve the staffing crisis, it will make it worse.

What will happen to Ontario’s uninsured? Experts weigh in

Adding to the list of lifted pandemic policies, Ontario will no longer cover the cost hospital services and physicians fees for the previously uninsured. Without OHIP for these groups, what can we expect to see? Is this the right move? Experts weigh in.

Ontario taxpayers bearing the burden of ‘OHIP for all’ policy

Ten days into the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario's public health insurance policy was expanded to include all uninsured patients, like temporary workers and tourists. But more sustainable solutions are needed in place of “OHIP for All.”

The essential role of spiritual care in long-term care

In 2020, Ontario's LTC lockdown policies led to the elimination of religious, recreational, therapeutic and social activities for residents, resulting in a spiritual health crisis in LTC homes. As a front-line occupational therapist, I witnessed first-hand the devastating consequences of the removal of spiritual care.

Shortage of physicians, support systems puts health care in northern Ontario in jeopardy

The holistic style of community care that is the backbone of health care in rural northern Ontario is in jeopardy. If we care about equity, those in northern Ontario must have equitable access to the opportunity to live and die well in their communities.

Pandemic exposes need to overhaul funding of hospice care

Yes, this is the right time to “call out” elected officials and demand progressive policy

“Mission-Pivot:” The not-so-gradual shift to essential COVID-19 research at Canadian universities

Our hospitals and prisons are failing because we’re using them to house people instead of to help them

Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy is built on the idea that people deserve to be poor

Lung cancer is no longer a death sentence. Why aren’t we saving more lives?

Why I took pharma money as a patient advocate. And why we should take more.

Direct Funding means freedom for many people with disabilities. Is it accessible enough?

Why are kids waiting so long for mental health services?

Health funding: Why 12 federal-provincial deals are better than none

Busting the myth of bloated government bureaucracy

Governments shouldn’t force faith-based hospitals to perform medical assistance in dying

The government of Ontario’s decision to protect faith-based institutions makes a lot of sense. It is now up to government to ensure that all those in need have access to medically assisted death.