thepatientfactor.com

Top Ten Countdown: Reasons for Leaving the Canadian Health Care Queues

10) You want to outshine the North Koreans and Cubans. 9) You really won’t lose your Canadian Identity. We didn’t invent single-payer, universal health care. We adopted the system from Great Britain. 8) The politicians, health care bureaucrats, and care providers telling you to “wait your turn” in the queue will most likely never personally experience one. 7) [...]

What Are Your Health Care Dollars Buying?

Asking Canadians if they are getting value for their money when it comes to spending on health care is like asking a blind person if they can see better when the room light is turned on or off. We are forcibly made oblivious to the specific costs of medical services we receive in Canada. This [...]

Why it’s Time to Pull the Plug on Single-Payer Health Care

Two patient cases receiving media attention in recent months serve to illustrate the true impact of our single-payer health care system on the personal health care decisions of Canadians. Isaac and Rebecka May have obtained a court injunction temporarily stopping the Alberta government from pulling the plug on medical care for their infant son. The Mays received a letter on January 13, [...]

Danny Williams’ Life Saving Leap Raises Questions About the Politics of Canadian Health Care

Many questions are being raised about Danny Williams’ choice to have heart surgery performed in the United States. If he were not the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador his choice would amount to nothing more than another number added to the growing list of Canadians leaving the country for medical care. The truth is that this [...]

Blowing the Whistle on Patient Safety: Why Patients Need to Speak Out

Patient safety is a hot topic in Canada and one that often leaves our politicians scrambling to maintain some semblance of action. They do so by creating more federal, provincial and territorial agencies and programs. Many of these government-funded initiatives are set-up as independent (arm’s length) non-profit organizations. Perhaps the biggest endeavour to date is [...]

An Empowered Patient

Are you curious about what happens to survivors of adverse events in the Canadian health care system? Some focus on the future trying to leave what happened to them in the past so that they can adjust to their new sense of normalcy and once again begin enjoying their life. Others become determined to drive [...]

The True Meaning of Private Health Care

Once upon a time the term private health care had a different meaning. It meant a patient was free to choose their own medical doctor. A doctor was free to set the price for providing their skills. It meant a private contract formed between a patient and their doctor for medical care, the price of [...]

Do You Hear What I Hear?

It’s the voice of patients everywhere. Each day there are stories in the news about the problems with our public health care system. Patients are finally voicing their concerns and people are realizing that although no health care system is perfect ours can be better. The popular notion that our health care is “free” seems to serve [...]

Canadian Politicians Without a Queue

When you think about our universal health care system do you ever wonder about the fairness of waiting lists, otherwise known as queues? Our politicians claim queues provide Canadians with equal access to health care. Do they really? Remember the recent outcry when hockey players and their families jumped the queue for the H1N1 flu vaccine? [...]

Life on the List for Lyall, The Finale

In the eleventh hour on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 Lyall’s waiting comes to an end. Less than three weeks after his appointment with the Oncologists he succumbs to esophageal cancer. No more pain and suffering, no more medications, nebulizer or oxygen. No more waiting on any lists for health care. Only a few days before, my husband [...]