Supply delay offers opportunity to get mass vaccination campaign right, experts say
Issues with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in Europe has left Canada receiving fewer doses in recent weeks than the federal government initially predicted, but the drop in supply offers an opportunity for governments to get the planning right for when mass vaccinations begin later in the year when supply ramps up again, experts say. “We should […]
What’s up (or down) with drug shortages?
With complaints and fears swirling around COVID-19 vaccine supply, we take up our devices once again to report on drug shortages in Canada. When we last communicated in Hill Times back in April 2020, Canada had already spent a decade facing severe shortages of prescription drugs. We argued that COVID-19 might exacerbate those shortages and, […]
Pandemic response slips from ‘slam dunk’ to ‘potential liability’ for Liberals, say some political insiders
The government’s handling of COVID-19 was until recently seen as a critical factor in drumming up voter support that could have put the Liberals into a position to convert their minority government into a majority in the next election, but it could now become a “liability” as Canadians are growing increasingly impatient about interruptions in […]
Pandemic exposing critical gaps in health workforce planning
Health workers in Canada experience endemic levels of burnout directly related to understaffing and work overload. Leaves of absence from work for mental health and stress related issues are 1.5 times higher among health workers than the rest of the population. Increasingly, health workers are significantly reducing their hours worked, just to cope, or leaving […]
Aging? What’s to be done?
Some 60 years ago, about the time the last of the baby boomers were being born, people over 65 made up about 7.5 per cent of Canada’s population. Now they are 17.5 per cent and will be nearly 25 per cent (10.8 million) in twenty years. And they are living longer. Currently the fastest growing […]
It’s time feds give us straight talk on the vaccine rollout
It’s time the Canadian government gets serious. The past 10 months have been hard on everyone. No matter your age, or stage of life, COVID has halted everybody in their tracks. We, as Canadian citizens, have hunkered down, figured out how best to communicate with others virtually, made Zoom dinners a thing, baked, cried, felt […]
No time to waste on health-care reforms
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us painful lessons about the weaknesses in Canada’s health-care system. Low-income and racialized communities have been disproportionately impacted, as have seniors and the disabled. More than ever, the current crisis demonstrates why preventive health care plans are best made in ordinary times, rather than in the middle of a crisis […]
COVID-19 is not gender-blind
Women are at greater risk both of direct exposure to the virus due to their over-representation in health care and service settings, and of pandemic-related job losses. Quarantine, isolation, unemployment, financial insecurity, violence, and a fragile work-family balance are all health risk factors exacerbated by the pandemic. All these may lead to persistent economic and […]
Vaccines give long-term care crisis a brief reprieve, but cannot stand as the solution
This time last year, I had the great privilege of authoring another editorial for The Hill Times in an effort to amplify the call for change within our nation’s long-term care sector. Like others, I struggle to reflect back on the relative innocence of 12 short months ago, in the “before times” of the pandemic. […]
Maybe artificial intelligence will drastically change health care, but who will benefit?
Governments across Canada have signalled that they believe artificial intelligence will play an important role in the country’s economic future. Major investments have attracted more computer scientists to our post-secondary institutions and have benefitted the private sector by opening up a growing pool of AI talent. If we want to build this data-driven economy in […]
