Poilievre’s comments on pharmacare “out of touch,” say Steelworkers

This week’s edition of who is saying what about public health care is compiled by Pat Van Horne. 

Steelworkers pounce on Poilievre’s misleading comments on pharmacare

“Poilievre’s comments show that he’s either completely out of touch or he’s choosing to mislead people for political gain. If we had a pharmacare system that covered the medications we negotiate today, we could focus on other key issues at the bargaining table, like more powerful paycheques, pensions, and workplace conditions. . . Poilievre can’t just mislead and manipulate Canadians. . . Claiming that the NDP wants to ‘ban’ private drug plans is not only utterly untrue, it’s out of line with reality,” said Marty Warren, United Steelworkers National Director, in a statement issued September 27, 2024

Manitoba hiring more health care workers but unions not seeing much improvement at work

“Any increase in the number of nurses is certainly a positive step for the province. However, our members have yet to report any noticeable relief,” said Darlene Jackson, president, Manitoba Nurses Union . . . They (290 newly-hired health care aides) are not fully functioning health-care aides yet. We haven’t seen any benefits from these numbers that were shared,” said Shannon McAteer, MB health care coordinator, Canadian Union of Public Employees, to to the Winnipeg Free Press, September 26, 2024

 “Our workers aren’t seeing these (hiring) numbers and these improvements. They’re struggling every day,” said MGEU president Kyle Ross, president Manitoba Government Employees, to the Winnipeg Free Press, September 26, 2024. The union has now served strike notice for Oct 8.

Canadian Medical Association apology to Indigenous people a hollow pledge, says doctor

“The apology itself comes across as performative . . . Despite pledging to ‘act against anti-Indigenous racism’, the apology implies the CMA has little understanding of what anti-Indigenous racism is, how it is shaped and which social determinants of health uniquely affect the lives of Indigenous people in this country,” said Dr. Suzanne Shoush, a First Nations/Black (St’atl’imx and Sudanese) physician, mother and advocate based in Toronto, to the Toronto Star, September 30 2024 and Healthy Debate, September 25 2024

More pathways for Indigenous doctors to practice in their communities needed

 “If you want to practice directly in your community, in my experience in Ontario, there isn’t a pathway to do that . . We have to think about what it means to be Indigenous, like a First Nations person connected to culture, working within a western framework. How do we de-institutionalize the health-care experience? That’s kind of the question that’s driving me forward,” said Dr. Elisa Levi, a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation on the shores of Georgian Bay, Ontario, to CTV News/The Canadian Press, September 26 2024

Indigenous life expectancy dropping

“Although people can look at that and see data and numbers, those are our loved ones. Those are members of our family that we love and care about who are no longer sitting at our table… We need every single member of our nation to be vibrant and healthy and self-determining so that we can keep ourselves going,” said Dr. Danièle Behn Smith,  B.C.’s Deputy Provincial Health Officer for Indigenous Health, to CBC’s The Current, Sept 30 2024

Family caregivers marginalized, says charity

“There’s an invisibility of family caregivers, so there’s this care without the caregiver aspect in Canadian organizations and health-care teams. . .This can also add to mistrust of the medical system, which is felt by many members of Indigenous and Black communities. . .There’s a lot of inaccessibility to caregiver education and support programs that are available in cultural, linguistic or community-focused ways . . .I have really seen some of the struggles that are associated with being somebody from a low-income family, being an immigrant and a visible minority, and how that affects myself and my mother as caregivers,” said Reemal Shahbaz, a PhD student at the University of Toronto and author of a report by Calgary-based charity Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation and marketing research firm Leger, to CBC News, September 18, 2024

Government announces pandemic preparedness agency

“We all hope that there be no other pandemic. But the responsible thing to do is to make sure that you have the team stand by and ready . . . The danger would have been (that) if we don’t have a permanent agency sitting somewhere, that collective knowledge that we have accumulated during COVID would even be dispersed eventually, perhaps even lost within the civil service . . .We’re pulling them together in a team so that when people are talking about health, emergency readiness, they know where to knock.”–said Federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, CBC News/The Canadian Press, September 24 2024

It ain’t broke so why ‘fix’ rural pharmaceutical delivery?

“This is kind of blowing us out of the water. . . “These supplies allow us to care for people in their homes. . . Our healthcare system is broken but this part of the system is not broken . . .I can call (the local pharmacy) at any time, day or night and they’ll send things out. I can get a pain pump usually within an hour if I need it,” said Dr. Susan Batten, who specializes in palliative care in Owen Sound, ON, to CBC News, September 18, 2024

Ontario temporary foreign worker denied OHIP coverage

“So you pay into a system and somehow you don’t get anything back… So in terms of ethical considerations, there is a lack of reciprocity… As far as I know, for all the other jurisdictions, temporary foreign workers just need to show that they are residents in that province or territory … This raises the question of why Ontario is doing this,” said University of Ottawa law professor Yin-Yuan Chen, regarding a temporary foreign worker in Ontario losing her OHIP coverage because she was working remotely for an employer that doesn’t have an office in the province, to the Toronto Star, September 28, 2024

“In an age of remote work, where an employee can meet the labour market needs of a jurisdiction (such as Ontario) by working for an employer that may be physically based in another province, the policy rationale for the ‘employer in Ontario’ requirement may no longer be as relevant as it once was,” stated the tribunal in a decision released this month, as reported in the Toronto Star, September 28, 2024