​Back to Basics:  understanding why health care costs in Canada just continue to spiral

Two weeks ago, Prof. Herb Emery published a commentary calling for the return to the original concept of Medical Necessity in funding and managing health care.  This would open up the opportunity for enterprising professionals to offer services that are desired and needed by the public but outside the bounds of the restrictions of the Canada Health Act. There are many health services not covered by the government plan including audiology, phlebotomy, physiotherapy, and optometry, readily available in the private market.
This discussion typically brings out strong positions in opposition that suggest there is no room for a dual stream  Health System and that all must be treated equally in the System. When the regulations and legislation were being drafted in the 1950’s, the planners and legislators had no concept of what was to happen to the health system.  It seemed simple to devise a system that would pay for services required by the population. The range of services was pretty limited; technology was pretty basic. The intent was that no family should suffer a financial hardship resulting from a “major “illness or trauma. Read more here

​Back to Basics:  understanding why health care costs in Canada just continue to spiral

Two weeks ago, Prof. Herb Emery published a commentary calling for the return to the original concept of Medical Necessity in funding and managing health care.  This would open up the opportunity for enterprising professionals to offer services that are desired and needed by the public but outside the bounds of the restrictions of the Canada Health Act.
This discussion typically brings out strong positions in opposition that suggest there is no room for a Two Tier Health System and that all must be treated equally, if in mediocre fashion, in the system. Read more here

Nursing Resource Strategy for New Brunswick:  great beginning.
​How does the health system take government’s nursing strategy document, released last week, and use it positively as a tool to effect the change that patients want, nurses want, and that will create a workplace environment that is wholesome and professionally rewarding? 
In two previous columns I outlined what are very challenging problems for the New Brunswick government in dealing with the “nursing shortage”.  Headlines in recent months have referred to Shortage of Nurses, causing much public alarm, but beneath the headline are areas of conflict, competition, dysfunction, and attitudes that will test the most skilled politician who would endeavor to bring resolution. Read more here 

All of the discussion about hospital beds filled ALC patients has presented nursing homes as the only alternative to hospital.  Many times each week, conversations with families in doctors’ offices and hospitals explain the need for long term care as Nursing Home.  Even in much recent public discourse, ALCs, those dear people in hospital who need long term care, are described as awaiting admission to a nursing home. Read more here