This Political Football Still In Play...

Hmmm...

Sunnybrook in merger talks with rehab centre

Sunnybrook and St. John's Rehab are both great facilities, I have been a patient at Sunnybrook and have worked at both places. and I wonder whether the fact that St, John's sits on 35 acres of prime real estate is a factor in this merger.

The Opposition Solution...

...the Conservative solution would be to get CAA to put some air in the tires so we can get to the closest hospital  and let the health care experts work on the problem. BTW to me the "experts" are the people in health care who wipe asses not those that kiss ass.

Nothing To Laff About...

The Quetion Is Whether The Money Is Being Wisely Spent...

Jeffrey Simpson

And the worst record on timely access to primary care goes to …

With all the money Ontario’s been throwing at its health-care system, a reasonable citizen might expect better
  
Christie Blatchford

Physicians' apparent failings laid bare

The Bogeyman Will Eventually Break Out Of The Closet...

...and our only salvation might be if Haiti, et al have recovered and we can ask them for fiscal help.
 
When is a user fee not a user fee? 


Ivison: Amid all the tinsel about Rahim and Helena and whether Larry King will make Liz Taylor his ninth wife (I just made that up but there's a certain insane symmetry to it), important things are happening in the new Hollywood of the North.  

MORE...

Canadian Geese Seen On Front Street...

...quack, quack, quack?

Justin Trottier and Michael Payton: If it talks like a quack ...

Posted: March 19, 2010, 4:30 PM by NP Editor Filed under: Justin Trottier,Michael Payton

 

As two self-professed skeptics, we came to the Total Health show in Toronto this past weekend with the expectation we would encounter some obtuse ideas about medicine and health. And sure enough, we saw plenty of quantum healers, celestial healers, aura photographers, soothsayers, homeopaths, naturopaths, mineropaths, fairy communicators, chiropractors, crystal channellers, hemp farmers and musical miracle composers. No GPs, dentists, optometrists, proctologists, psychiatrists, dermatologists, cardiologists or neurologists. They wouldn’t have been welcomed there. Take Dr. Joel Wallach. He has been performing research on the benefits of consuming colloidal minerals. "I've been doing this for 32 years and none of your damn doctors are interested," he said. He is the author of Dead Doctors Don't Lie, an indictment of the medical establishment. "Dead doctors don't lie. They're dead," he explains. He claims there are 15 million instances of people killed or injured by doctors. Bizarrely, however, he enjoys brandishing the doctor moniker. The former veterinarian turned naturopath claims to have performed 20,000 autopsies, which comes to an autopsy a day for over 54 years. He seems to have a love-hate relationship with medicine, at once condemning the establishment while simultaneously buttressing his claims with evidence garnered from it.

Click here to read more...

Wii Covered By Ohip?

Grandma had a stroke? Teach her to play Wii

e26

Wii Baseball: A grandmother who may or may not be enjoying herself pitches to her grandson, who clearly is.

Much has been made of the Wii fitness factor, and how the Wii might actually be good for your health. Basically, those who are generally inactive are generally more active when they opt to play the Wii. This is a no-brainer, although my ability to bowl a near-perfect game without barely flicking my wrist might indicate otherwise.
But new research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2010 suggests that playing the virtual reality gaming system might not only burn calories, but also appears to help stroke victims improve their motor function.
The pilot study of 20 stroke survivors (average age 61) were randomized to play a variety of recreational games, from Jenga and cards to Wii Tennis and Wii Cooking Mama, a game that involves movements that mimic cutting, peeling, slicing, and shredding food.
Both groups engaged in eight one-hour sessions over a two-week period approximately two months after suffering a stroke. The study not only found no adverse side effects (i.e. safety hazards) in the Wii group (and one case of nausea in the recreational group), but those who played the Wii demonstrated "significant" motor improvement in speed and extent of recovery.
"This is the first randomized clinical study showing that virtual reality using Wii gaming technology is feasible and safe and is potentially effective in enhancing motor function following a stroke," says Gustavo Saposnik, director of the Stroke Outcomes Research Unit at the Li Ka Shing Institute at St. Michael's Hospital and lead investigator of the study, which took place at the University of Toronto's Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. He adds:

The beauty of virtual reality is that it applies the concept of repetitive tasks, high-intensity tasks, and task-specific activities that activates special neurons (called 'mirror neuron system') involved in mechanisms of cortical reorganization (brain plasticity). Effective rehabilitation calls for applying these principles.

While Saposnik admits that it is too early to say whether Wii is effective and safe enough to be prescribed to stroke patients, his group is already performing a larger study to further analyze the game's potential rehabilitative effects. Of course, in the meantime, plenty of retirees are already getting their game on, as in this CNET video of grannies and grampas bowling in 2008.

Have A Heart! Give Him A Break...

Rex Murphy: The private life of Danny Williams

Posted: February 05, 2010, 7:51 AM by Jeremy Barker

Rex Murphy

The following is a transcript of Rex Murphy's Point of View commentary from the Feb. 4 broadcast of The National on CBC Television. Readers can watch Mr. Murphy's commentary at cbc.ca/thenational
Danny Williams, Premier of Newfoundland, had or is having major heart surgery in the United States.
I'm sure everyone wishes him and his family the very best with the operation.

The Rest Of The Article

A Sad Commentary On Health Care In NFL...

Danny Williams travels to U.S. for heart surgery

Newfoundland Premier leaves province for undisclosed location south of the border Feb 01, 2010

Hmm.......

Report: U.S. Health Care System Squanders Up to $800 Billion Per Year

The ailing U.S. health care system could use some serious triage, according to a new report released Monday by Thomson Reuters that rooted out the many ways in which hundreds of billions of dollars are being wasted annually. Meanwhile, Americans aren’t getting any healthier.

CONTINUE

Chris Selley's Full Pundit

Department of health and safety

North America's most incredibly unedifying health care debate continues.

The Toronto Star's inimitable Bob Hepburn enumerates six reasons why he'd “rather be sick here [than] in the U.S.” The first reason is because our health care system is “universal,” and everyone is entitled to “the same level of care as a multi-millionaire” — none of which has anything to do with whether or not Bob Hepburn would be better off sick in Canada and the latter part of which is a complete load of horse crap. Other reasons that have nothing to do with Hepburn's own situation include
the fact that “no Canadian winds up bankrupt because he or she had to pay for health care” — which is also, of course, a complete load of horse crap. In 2006, research funded by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy — research that took us about 90 seconds to locate — found that fully 15% of senior citizens declaring bankruptcy cited medical reasons as the primary cause.

We really neeed more facts Chris. What payments did they make to hospitals, doctors, pharmacists, labatories, etc. that forced them to declare bankruptcy? Did they possibly declare bankruptcy due to other reasons; ie: reduction/loss of private pension plan payments, loss of income due to job loss that they took after retirement, excessive debt load, etc.

There ensues a hode-podge of random facts backed up by random, unnamed polls or tangential arguments that don't actually support the fact in question — for example, “the quality of care I got in the last week was unparalleled” because “polls have consistently shown that more than 90 per cent of us are pleased with the level of care we have received” — until we get to the end, when Hepburn manages to surpass even his own high standard for high school newspaper facileness. “The way to resolve most of our problems,” he says, “is to spend more money.” Wow. Just... wow.

You Both Have A Valid Position BUT.....

...I would rather get sick in Toronto than Tampa!

Nutbars are ruining health care
Goldstein: Canada's health care is 30% privately funded, U.S. system is almost 50% public. Neither work well enough. I wish John McCain had won the U.S. presidential election. I think Barack Obama has bitten off more.. MORE...

Why I'd rather be sick here than in U.S.
Hepburn: It is hard, these days, to turn on an American TV channel without seeing politicians or right-wing pundits ranting about how bad Canada's beloved medicare system supposedly is. Their fear-mongering is aimed at .. MORE...

Gadzooks! Politicians Lie? What Next.......

...giving more support to those in the health care system who wipe asses and less support to those that kiss asses (eHealth, etc.)

Health care truth: Politicians lie

By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN

Perhaps Canadians and Americans will be able to have an intelligent discussion about health care when politicians on both sides of the border stop lying about it.

Overall I Agree With Layton

From personal experience I would have to give our medical system an A+. Admission, diagnostics, treatment and follow up were addressed in a timely and professional manner by the medical and ancillary personnel.....

Jack Layton: In defence of Canadian health care

Posted: July 31, 2009, 4:28 PM by NP Editor

Canada's health-care system has come in for a drubbing in the battle over U.S. health-care reform. Critics, many of them Canadian, have pointed out its flaws and warned Americans against adopting a similar system. NDP leader Jack Layton countered the criticism, in an article originally carried in The Huffington Post:

Last week a new study showed that 92% of Canadians would recommend their doctor to friends and family. Two-thirds have had their doctor for over five years and 85% of Canadians have a regular doctor.

Does that sound like the health care system depicted in the right-wing Republican-backed smear campaign against Canada?

No care for life-threatening conditions, no choice, exorbitant costs, bureaucrat control, poor outcomes -- these are the bogeymen of the right-wing smear campaign. And like all bogeymen, once you look under the bed they don't exist.

Click here to read more...

Time To Put Canadian System Under Microscope?

U.S. healthcare suddenly stumbles on $2 trillion in savings. (It was in the stethoscope drawer)

Posted: May 11, 2009, 5:51 PM by NP Editor

Funny how this happens eh?

The forces of Obamaism turn their flinty eyes on the healthcare industry, and suddenly -- wham-o -- the industry discovers it can make $2 trillion in cost savings.

$2 trillion? How does anyone miss $2 trillion in savings? It's not like you can just re-use tongue depressors; $2 trillion takes some serious effort. So how did no one notice these potential savings until now? Could it just possibly be that the industry lobbyists denied they were even possible? (First billion in possible savings: fire all the lobbyists).

Click here to read more...

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough
If US health care is so much more expensive than ours.... ....how come they drive nicer cars?...
small dead animals |

Bad news for Boomers...
...and everybody else...Canada's health system will be short 60,000 registered nurses over the next 15 years unless urgent action is taken, a new study warns.There are currently 217,000 registered nurses in Canada, the single largest group of health care providers. You think a six hour wait in the local hospital emergency room is a hard go... trust me... it's about to get worse.
halls of macadamia

Reflects Public Attitude????

I Agree.....

...I am by no stretch of the imagination "privileged" but in the course of one week I had a number of MRIs and CAT scans because the medical team deemed them necessary. I will admit I was in a large metropolitan hospital aand access might be less in some of the smaller centers.

No class bias by MDs when ordering MRIs
March 07, 2009

Re: Unequal access to MRIs, Editorial, March 4

Ontario's doctors firmly believe that all patients should have equal and timely access to health-care services. However, I am shocked by the suggestion that physicians may be a factor in the "subtle class bias" involved in access to MRIs.
When a doctor requests a test or service, including an MRI, it is because it is medically necessary and not just because they can. More importantly, it has nothing to do with how much money a person has in their bank account. To suggest that doctors factor in class is unfair to the profession.
We know that in some cases it can be difficult finding a family doctor, but we know it can be done. Ontario doctors are committed to not only ensuring that every person has access to the care of a family physician, but also to delivering the best level of care to each and every one of our patients.
Dr. Ken Arnold, President, Ontario Medical Association

The First Victim's Body Isn't Cold Yet And We Have....

Lawsuits don't cure listeriosis

It didn't take long for litigation nation-type shenanigans to get rolling on this whole Maple Leaf Foods recall. By Tuesday night more than 1,100 people had already signed on to lawsuits filed by the Merchant Law Group, in Ontario, Quebec.. MORE... Keeping our food supply safe The listeriosis outbreak that began with tainted meats processed at one of Maple Leaf Foods' Toronto facilities is undoubtedly a tragic event. Contaminated meat has lead to six deaths, with nine more under investigation, and 29 confirmed.. MORE... Lunch box vs. ballot box YES, THE CANADIAN public is in the grip of uncertainty. With up to 12 deaths linked to listeriosis, the uncertainty Canadians care about is whether it’s safe to eat cold cuts and luncheon meats. MORE...

How Is Primary Health Care Defined

I responded to the question considering access to my family doctor as primarily health care which is excellent but if primary health care was defined as a walk-in clinic I would have to respond fair....the quality of the service was excellent but wait times vary considerably.

How would you describe your access to primary medical care?
Excellent	21%
Good	41%
Fair	23%
Poor	16%