New Brunswick was warned on travel nurses: president of nurses union
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne.
New Brunswick was warned on travel nurses
“As President of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, I am not surprised at the findings in the Auditor General’s report on travel nurse contracts – but I am appalled and disappointed at the lack of oversight from our regional health authorities and the Department of Social Development… New Brunswickers deserve better. Nurses deserve better. We need to take back our public health care system and get profits out of care,” wrote Paula Doucet in the NB Media Co-op, June 19, 2024
Legislative committee requests public inquiry on use of travel nurses
“I really think there’s cause for more investigation. I really feel that the trustees need to be spoken to. I really feel with the amount of money we’re talking about that we should have a judicial public inquiry so that we can talk to people who do not present themselves here to this committee and, to really get to the very end of what we need to know about all of this,” said former New Brunswick Health Minister Dorothy Shephard to CTV News, June 24, 2024
Pharmacare can’t come soon enough for people living with diabetes
“I haven’t been able to keep up… because of reduced financial means,” said Marty Bourgeois, a Moncton resident who has rationed his insulin because of not being able to afford it, to the NB Media Co-op, June 25, 2024
Health minister asks Senate to pass pharmacare bill
“My objective is to see every province, every territory by April 1 of next year see these drugs flowing. That’s my goal,” said federal Health Minister Mark Holland, to the Winnipeg Free Press/Global News, June 19, 2024
Stop saying that our health care system is “broken,” says former community health worker
“The problem with accepting ‘health care is broken’ as some inevitable phenomenon is that many of us have internalized and rationalized it so much that we can’t imagine that different policies, resource allocation and creative delivery of services could shift the imminent state of crisis we are in,” wrote Leila Attar, a former community health worker, in the Toronto Star, June 22, 2024
Chief calls on federal government to meet its commitment to fund hospital
“It seems like we always have to, as First Nations, . . . hold press conferences or new rallies and what-not just to get our treaty partners to the table to recognize their obligations,” said Moose Cree First Nation Chief Peter Wesley, to the Toronto Star, June 18, 2024
Internationally-educated health professionals can help solve workforce issues
“Workforce development non-profits and health-care stakeholders must recognize each other’s strengths and expertise, and work together to solve workforce issues. To do so, they must have structured and clear ways of engaging with each other for this to happen. . . Both federal and provincial governments need to integrate IEHP workforce development strategies within their health human resource strategies. And, importantly, they must also create funding mechanisms to purposefully engage non-profit workforce development organizations to work closely with healthcare system stakeholders,” said Cameron Moser, senior director of services and program development at ACCES Employment, in the Hill Times, June 20, 2024
Patient evacuations become the “new normal” in northern Alberta
“Pre-plan with your municipalities, pre-plan with your allied agencies, your fire partners, your wildfire partners. . . One phone call and we had probably half a dozen school buses on standby for us in the parking lot . . . Nothing worse than having 100-and-some folks who are panicked and, ‘Oh my goodness where are we going?’ Definitely having a calm, cool, collected approach was advantageous for everybody involved,” said Cale Holmstrom, clinical operations manager with Alberta Health Services, to CBC, June , 2024
Good idea or gimmick? Quebec hospital tries virtual reality nursing
“They’re looking at the vital signs of the patients to be able to monitor their condition at the same time they’re able, through augmented reality glasses, to do a physical evaluation of the patients,” said Erin Cook, who oversees virtual care at the Jewish General Hospital, to Global News, June 20, 2024
More than 500 long-term care beds gone over three years in Toronto
“When you lose a long-term-care home, you are closing not just a place where people live. For our most vulnerable citizens, they’re losing their health care, they’re losing their housing, and they’re also losing their community . . .When long-term-care homes close, what residents lose is far more than a roof over their head. They lose their entire way of life,” said Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of the national seniors organization CanAge, to the Toronto Star, June 19, 2024
Support the Canadian Health Coalition
