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Articles on Health-care system

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Women — particularly racialized women — are more likely to be in positions at the lower end of the health sector’s pay scale, that also require close and prolonged contact with patients. (Shutterstock)

Canada’s health-care crisis is gendered: How the burden of care falls to women

Not only is the health sector feminized, but women — particularly racialized women — are more likely to be in jobs at the low end of the pay scale, but that require prolonged contact with patients.
A program offers training and education specifically on family medicine from the start of medical school, while bypassing administrative hurdles to residency. (Shutterstock)

Family doctor shortage: Medical education reform can help address critical gaps, starting with a specialized program

Education has a role to play in addressing the shortage of family doctors. A new program is designed specifically for comprehensive, community-based family practice.
A fundamental component for training health-care professionals is interacting with patients and families. (Shutterstock)

Solving Canada’s shortage of health professionals means training more of them, and patients have a key role in their education

Each encounter that health-care students have with patients and families helps them understand real-world patient needs. That means all Canadians have a role in educating future health-care providers.
It is clear that some public trust in public health, science and government has been lost in Canada and around the world. (Shutterstock)

Inquiry must assess how Canada’s fragmented COVID-19 response lost the public’s trust

Now is the time to learn from the COVID-19 response through an action-oriented independent inquiry focused on accountability. Reforms to data generation, access and use are essential.
Recruiting health workers from countries on the World Health Organization’s safeguard list without robust and reciprocal benefits for the countries sending them does not meet ethical standards. (Shutterstock)

The ethics of recruiting international health-care workers: Canada’s gains could mean another country’s pain

Recruiting internationally educated health workers is a key part of Canada’s proposed solution to the health worker crisis. But there are ethical questions about recruiting from foreign countries.
There is debate about whether a health-care worker can ethically participate in both palliative care and the MAID program. (Shutterstock)

MAID’s evolving ethical tensions: Does it make dying with dignity easier than living with dignity?

Bill C-7 has created ethical tensions between MAID providers and palliative care, between transparency and patient privacy, and between offering a dignified death rather than a dignified life.
Long COVID patients face many barriers, the first of which is having their illness minimized or disregarded by others. (Freepik)

People with long COVID continue to experience medical gaslighting more than 3 years into the pandemic

People with long COVID report that their symptoms are dismissed or not treated seriously by health-care providers. This medical gaslighting not only prevents treatment but can cause stigma and shame.
Research shows that uninsured people are more likely to get care later in pregnancy, and less care overall. This increases risks for mothers and babies. (Shutterstock)

An emergency in the making: Ending pandemic prenatal health coverage for uninsured people is both costly and dangerous

Discontinuing expanded health-care funding will result in less prenatal care for uninsured patients, more health risks, higher costs to the health system, and moral distress for health-care providers.
When ambulances are delayed at overcrowded hospitals because they can’t offload patients, it means they can’t respond to emergency calls and people wait longer for paramedics to arrive. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Emergency department crowding has gone beyond hallways onto ambulance ramps. Now there’s nowhere left to wait.

Ambulance response times have not always met targets, but the alarming new pinch point in our health-care system is that there are no ambulances at all available to respond to calls.
Nurses of the University College Hospital protest in London on Feb. 6, 2023. The walkout is part of a wave of health worker strikes and demonstrations in recent months. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Health-care worker strikes in the United Kingdom: Are there lessons for Canada’s health crisis?

U.K. health worker protests echo issues in Canada. They are also a harbinger of future labour disputes and systemic collapse if austerity, underinvestment and neglect of health workers continue.
Former Saskatchewan Premier and national New Democratic Party leader T.C. (Tommy) Douglas in 1965. Douglas was instrumental in the creation of Medicare. The Canadian Press

Looking forward into the past: Lessons for the future of Medicare on its 60th anniversary

At the dawn of Medicare, Saskatchewan’s community co-op clinics pioneered team-based, holistic care. Now, with the health system in crisis 60 years later, it may be time to return to that care model.
Newfoundland and Labrador has implemented a tax of 20 cents per litre on sugary drinks. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

How taxing sugary drinks reinforces weight stigma

Taxation of sugar-sweetened drinks is not only inequitable, but also has the potential to create or perpetuate weight stigma, which has negative effects on mental and physical health.
The transition from the supportive world of pediatric care to the adult system can be challenging for teens learning to manage chronic health conditions on their own. Shutterstock

Teens with chronic conditions face challenges and risks when they age out of pediatric rheumatology care

Aging out of the supportive world of pediatric care at a vulnerable time in life can pose risks to teens with chronic health conditions as they enter the resource-strapped adult care system.
Because of the difficulty in managing their care, patients with COPD have hospitalization rates 63 per cent higher than the general population, as well as 85 per cent more emergency department visits and 48 per cent more ambulatory care visits. (Shutterstock)

How improving COPD treatment in primary care could reduce demand on hospitals and emergency departments

Innovation in primary care for COPD patients has the potential to alleviate a significant strain on the health system by reducing emergency department visits and hospitalizations.
Until the government acknowledges the critical role family physicians have in population health and on easing the burden on acute hospital care, pressures will only be relieved temporarily. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

With family doctors heading for the exits, addressing the crisis in primary care is key to easing pressure on emergency rooms

A strong primary care system keeps patients away from emergency departments and helps patients self-manage illnesses. But Ontario’s plan to ease pressure on emergency rooms ignores family medicine.
Many young adults with chronic health conditions transition to post-secondary school at or around the same time they are transitioning from pediatric to adult health care. (Shutterstock)

Starting post-secondary school with a complex health condition: 5 tips for students, plus 5 ways institutions can help

Managing a chronic health condition can make the transition to post-secondary education more complex.

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