Nurse database will be a game changer: health minister
This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care includes Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos’ promotion of a new database for nurses, Canadian Medical Association’s Dr. Alika Lafontaine on the need for benchmarks in health care spending, a disability rights advocate’s fear of accessing health care during heat waves, and the National Institute on Aging’s Dr. Samir Sinha on the need for investments in long-term care.
Duclos says database will help nurses
“Nursys in Canada database will be a game changer in strengthening our health workforce by ensuring better registration process for nurses and a more consistent collection of data. Through this database, we will better support our nursing community and patient care. We will keep advancing our efforts to improve health workforce planning across Canada so all health workers can continue providing quality care for all Canadians, when and where they need it,” stated Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, in release issued at International Council of Nurses Congress, Montreal, Government of Canada, July 3, 2023
No provinces have submitted plans on how to spend health care dollars
“I think it’s pretty clear that the urgency is high. The hope from frontline providers is that it happens as soon as possible. But how we measure [outcomes in the action plans] determines how we deploy the funding, so it’s very important to get it as close to right as possible. . . The importance of any string is that we have a metric that shows whether or not things have changed. As Canadians sit back and reflect on whether or not this money has been effective, these benchmarks are going to go a long way,” said Canadian Medical Association President Alika Lafontaine, Hill Times, July 3, 2023
Story continues below
Heat dome expected to return to BC; poverty greatest risk
“Honestly, summer is a time of fear and anxiety at this point. Other people talk about the things they’re excited for in summer. They talk about going swimming, going to the beach, getting outside and going travelling, and I think about who in my community is going to die and what it’s going to do to my health and my friends’ health,” said Q Lawrence, a 26-year-old disability justice advocate, CBC News, June 29, 2023
What do we do when Canada becomes ‘super-aged’?
“When 15 per cent of your hospital beds are occupied by people who just need long-term-care services, imagine what we’re going to do when we have way more older people needing those services… I think it’s not just our long-term-care systems but our entire health-care system that will collapse if we don’t take progressive action now,” stated Dr. Samir Sinha, National Institute on Aging, to the Toronto Star, June 29, 2023
Not Just Ontario – systemic health care reform a must across Canada
“We can’t say we have a universal health-care system when millions of people don’t have access to primary care . . . This mirage of universality was exposed during the pandemic and has been further eroded,” said Dr. Andrew Boozary, primary care physician and executive director, Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, to the Toronto Star, July 1, 2023
Nova Scotia claims largest-ever medical residency class
“We train and educate thousands of healthcare professionals every year through our colleges and university programs, which helps connect more people to healthcare services during their training period. In the long-term, keeping those professionals here after they graduate is an important part of our plan to fix healthcare,” said Michelle Thompson, Nova Scotia minister responsible for the Office of Healthcare Professionals Recruitment, in a Nova Scotia government news release, July 4, 2023
Support the Canadian Health Coalition
