Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
Provincial health-care systems are struggling to place Canadians in the appropriate continuing-care settings they need, potentially adding to wait times and barriers to care, according to a new report.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report found one in five seniors who have lower-priority needs could have delayed or even avoided admission to residential care and instead received care in their own home or in home-like settings.
Read more at theglobeandmail.com
The Ontario Medical Association has announced that it wants to appeal a court ruling that would make the names of the province’s top-billing doctors public.
In an email sent to 29,000 members Thursday, the organization said it wants to ask the Ontario Court of Appeal to overturn a lower court ruling that would allow public disclosure of the names.
The OMA continues to maintain that physicians’ identities should be exempt from disclosure under the personal privacy provisions of Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Read more at thestar.com
Ontario’s Divisional Court has ordered an end to the secrecy surrounding the province’s highest-billing doctors.
A three-judge panel dismissed an application to quash an order from Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner to make the names of the highest-paid physicians public, ruling that the order was a reasonable one.
The court accepted that the names of the doctors, in conjunction with the amounts they receive in OHIP payments and their medical specialties, are not “personal information.” They are, therefore, not exempt from disclosure under the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Read more at thestar.com
Angela Bugera, the owner of an art gallery in Edmonton, Alberta, was experiencing hip deterioration that was interfering with her daily tasks and forcing her to walk with a cane.
She was put on a waiting list for a hip replacement at the Hip and Knee Clinic, which manages a centralized surgery triage process for Alberta. But her doctor advised her to explore private treatment options she might be able to access more quickly, because her pain was so severe and her mobility was becoming impeded.
After a worldwide search for a suitable clinic, taking into account the additional costs of flights and weighing up a range of options, she decided to seek treatment at Health City Cayman Islands in 2015.
Read more at huffingtonpost.com
Health Canada on Tuesday opened up a consultation on changes to the country’s Food and Drug Regulations and Medical Devices Regulations that would make it mandatory for certain health care institutions to report serious adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and medical device incidents (MDIs).
“Reports about serious ADRs and MDIs can be important signals of emerging safety issues. Such post-market observations can also lead to improved safety information about a product,” the regulator said.
Read more at raps.org
Police say a Toronto doctor has been charged after an alleged sexual assault on a patient.
They say the complainant alleges she was sexually assaulted by the doctor during treatment.
Investigators say Dr. Stephen Strigler, 57, was arrested on Monday and charged with sexual assault.
Police are asking anyone with information to contact investigators.
Strigler is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 4.
read more at thestar.com
New Brunswick has made public how much it pays to each of its doctors.
The province released the names of physicians along with the amounts each received in payments for providing medically insured services last year.
In doing so, it has joined a growing list of jurisdictions that is turning to public disclosure of such data.
read more at thestar.com
A staggering number of people with mental health conditions are prescribed opioids, according to a new study.
Researchers from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the University of Michigan found that 51 percent of painkiller prescriptions are distributed to those who have also been diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
It started with a letter from US Senator Charles Grassley.
In December 2009, the Iowa Republican demanded to know how a Miami psychiatrist was writing more than 96,000 prescriptions for Medicaid patients. It was nearly twice the number of the second highest prescriber in Florida.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil, responded with a tartly worded message of his own. “I never thought I would be faulted for working hard or for being very organized and efficient,” he wrote the senator.
Health-care fraud costs the US government and insurance companies some $100 billion a year in overcharges and other rip offs, according to experts. It is a perpetual drain on the nation’s wealth, undercutting the ability to provide quality healthcare to those most in need.
read more at yahoo.com
An Ontario court has ruled that a provincial mental health facility ran therapeutic programs for years that amounted to torture for the patients involved.
Justice Paul Perell’s ruling came in the midst of a lengthy lawsuit filed by past and present residents of the Oak Ridge division of the Penetang Psychiatric Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ont., that alleges patients were gravely mistreated.
Perell says three programs at the hospital that involved the forced administration of drugs, physical restraint and sleep deprivation, amounted to both physical and mental torture.
(original article appeared 8 June 2017)
Read more at huffingtonpost.com