Council of the Federation Delivers Its First Report
The Premiers on Healthcare Reform
Canada’s premiers recently unveiled recommendations to improve health care as a part of their Council of the Federation meeting. The recommendations came out of a report led by Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghiz.
The report’s recommendations touch on a number of areas that CARP has been advocating for, such as the need for better and more affordable care for patients with chronic diseases and pan-Canada approaches to information sharing and benchmarking. However, the recommendations address these large health issues in a piecemeal fashion and don’t go far enough in advancing healthcare improvement. Read more
|
|
Provinces must stand together on drug purchases
If we don't want to find ourselves paying corporate welfare to pharmaceutical companies, we may need to exercise our collective muscle
At the recent Council of the Federation meeting, the provinces (except Quebec) announced that they would begin bulk purchasing generic drugs to reduce health-care costs. They also flagged the need to both expand and accelerate group pricing on brand-name pharmaceuticals.
This is a long time coming and a step in the right direction. Now, we need to see solid action and not good intentions or half-measures. Early attempts at similar programs were close to failure. Read more
|
|
Breaking News/This Just In...
Court upholds B.C. woman’s exemption from doctor-assisted suicide ban
In a written decision, Judge Prowse says revoking Ms. Taylor’s exemption would cause irreparable harm to Ms. Taylor, which outweighs the federal government’s interests.
Judge Prowse acknowledges Ms. Taylor has become a symbol in the right-to-die case, but the judge said that Mr. Taylor is also a person who shouldn’t be sacrificed for the “greater good.” Read more
|
|
A Nursing Call to Action
Nurses Association Adds Voice to Healthcare Reform
The National Expert Commission of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) released a report, A Nursing Call to Action, calling for a fundamental shift in Canada’s healthcare system. The report outlines a Plan of Action touches on the need for an evidence-based integrated approach to health care that takes into consideration the changing needs of Canada’s demographics, persistence of health inequality, and the cost challenges of meeting future needs. Although many of the plan’s recommendations are not new, the report highlights the perspective of nurses and their potential role in advancing healthcare reform with government and other health professionals. Read more
|
|
Air Canada pilots suffer setback in mandatory retirement case
Major setback in the struggle against mandatory retirement based solely on age
A recent decision by the Federal Court of Appeal upholding mandatory retirement for Air Canada pilots “walks us back a couple of decades in terms of social thinking,” says CARP, Canada’s largest seniors’ organization.
The little-noticed decision, posted last week to the court of appeal’s website, overturned earlier findings by the Federal Court of Canada and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that contractual provisions forcing Air Canada pilots to retire at 60 violated the Charter of Rights. Read more
|
|
As more seniors seek ‘grey divorce,’ reconsider your retirement plans
Preparing for retirement may sometimes mean being ready for change in more ways than one
During a nearly two-decades long career, financial planner Debbie Hartzman has doled out her share of savvy money advice to clients going through divorce.
What may be surprising is that in the last few years she’s been seeing more and more clients in their 60s, 70s or even 80s.
According to Statistics Canada, the phenomenon of “grey divorce” – or separation in one’s senior years – has been steadily increasing overall. Read more
|
|
Canadians and Britons Would Allow Euthanasia Under Some Conditions
On July 26th, 2012, Angus Reid published the results of a very timely survey that polled both Britons and Canadians. A summary of their findings is available below. Interestingly, Angus Reid’s findings are consistent with the findings of The CARP Poll we conducted in September 2010.
Throughout the survey, large majorities of Canadians and Britons support doctor assisted suicide in three cases: if it is requested by a competent, fully-informed, terminally ill patient; if a patient with a terminal illness is expected to suffer a great deal of physical and mental anguish; and if a patient has specifically stated that he or she does not want to be kept in a coma if there is little or no hope of waking. Read more
|
|
Most Canadians have no written plan for end-of-life care, poll finds
Better communication needed about end-of-life care options
Rather than ever lose his ability to think, remember or recognize his wife and children, Dr. Daren Heyland would sooner be dead.
The critical care doctor and professor of medicine at Queen’s University also states in his personal directive — a legal document that set outs the treatments he would and would not want should he ever lose the capacity to speak for himself — that he would rather die than be left dependent on others to feed, dress, bathe or otherwise provide total care for him. Read more
|
|
|  |
|
|
Can We Expect Better Health Care Reform?
Canada’s health care system is still a patchwork eight years and billions of tax dollars after the Health Accords!
National health care reform is the issue of the year and decade. The federal government’s refusal to negotiate a new Health Accord left the provincial premiers pushing a rope. Their response six months later was to finally adopt some best clinical practices and purchase a few generic drugs in bulk. Really!
The real importance of the Health Accords was not to keep the provinces happy but to keep Canadians healthy – by fundamentally redirecting the country’s health care resources to that end – regardless of what had been done in the past, or whose ox would have to be gored. It requires leadership, innovation and cooperation and consensus if necessary but not necessarily consensus. Read more
|
|
If you experience difficulty filling out the survey, please click here
Previous Issues of CARP Action Online
CARP Home Care Poll Report
Three quarters agree the fact 70% of Canadians will require extended care constitutes a ‘crisis’
One quarter of members are, or know someone, in home care or long term care, and, among these, three quarters say benchmarks set previously by members, for assessment and admission, are not being met.
Members see about a month as a reasonable length of time to wait for an LTC bed, and few would move to get faster admission. One third expect to require extended care of some kind, mostly more than ten years from now. Most do not believe their provinces have adequate extended care resources for their needs now, nor do they think they will in the future. Read more
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Get Your Free Subscription to CARP Action Online!
|
|
|
Caregiver’s Diary
An Old Sea Dog
I pick up my new boat tomorrow. I took it out on sea trials this week and got acquainted. It’s BIG, ocean-liner big, to me, who’s used to a 22 foot sloop that sailed like a fat Laser. This boat takes a long weekend, and half a township to turn, and when it does, it doesn’t want to stop turning. Fun!
My 88 year old widowed father has followed my adventures with the new boat assiduously. While never a sailor, he’s always had dreams of boats and the sea. Read more
|
|
Don’t let needed drugs disappear without notice
Leaving patients in the lurch with no warning is unacceptable
About 1,000 Canadian heart patients and their physicians learned through pharmacists and the media this summer that the low-cost generic drug disopyramide had been abruptly discontinued for business reasons, with no alternative on the market. Read more
|
|
Web-based tool speeds access to medical specialists for Ottawa-area residents
More eastern Ontarians are getting faster access to medical advice from high-demand specialists such as dermatologists and endocrinologists thanks to a web-based tool designed by the region’s health planners.
Called the Technology Collaboration Space (TCS), the tool has also been customized for providers of diabetes services and community agencies that run shuttle buses for seniors, allowing those programs to run more smoothly. Read more
|
|
Ignore, Delete and Do Not Circulate: Hoax Healthcare Email Seeks to Frighten Seniors
Scam alert!
A hoax email has been circulating that seeks to frighten seniors with patently false information.
The email claims – falsely – that the Ontario government will cut off health care services for everyone over the age of 75 unless approved by an “Ethics Panel.”
CARP asked the Ontario Ministry of Health for clarification, and the ministry confirmed that the email has no basis in truth. Read more
|
|
Access to care for B.C. seniors shrinking as their numbers grow
New Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study
B.C. seniors’ access to home and community care has declined drastically in the past decade and must be improved or seniors will overwhelm our hospital system, warns a new Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report. The study, Caring for B.C.’s Aging Population: Improving Health Care for All, released Wednesday, ties deficits in seniors’ home and community health care to chronic, expensive hospital overcrowding and long wait lists. Read more
|
|
A Letter from Dr. Samir K. Sinha, Provincial Lead for Ontario’s Seniors Care Strategy
Dear CARP Members,
Ontario is moving forward in developing its Seniors Care Strategy, which will help older Ontarians stay healthy, live at home longer and receive the right care, at the right time and in the right place. Read more
|
|
Ontario Seniors Care Strategy Questionnaire
Have your say: how is the government of Ontario doing on seniors health?
The following questionnaire provides an opportunity for Ontarians interacting with the health care system to have a voice and provide their perspective on things that matter to them. The information and insight you provide will help to inform our plans to better support older Ontarians stay healthy and live at home longer. Read more
|
|
This home-care program keeps patients out of hospital
More community care and primary care partnership projects are just what the doctor ordered
At 88, Daniel Donilson is confined to a hospital bed with a long list of ailments that includes congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia and a Parkinson’s-like palsy. Read more
|
|
ByWard Market seniors’ home points to a new model of affordable care
A fantastic model for seniors housing that should be adopted nation-wide
After suffering a stroke last year, André Lacombe knew he could not live on his own any longer.
The 69-year-old cancer survivor took a few falls in his Mooney’s Bay apartment. He tired easily. He often ordered in meals instead of shopping and cooking. “I couldn’t look after myself,” he says. “I was too afraid to get into the shower and fall.” Read more
|
|
Queen’s University Elder Law Clinic
The first of its kind offered at a Canadian law school, the Queen’s Elder Law Clinic offers free educational services and legal assistance on elder law related topics for eligible low-income seniors in Kingston, Ontario. Read more
|
|
|
