Does Halifax get its own Mayo Clinic?

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil's remonstrations in the legislature this month condemning a year-old memo from some Capital District Health Authority physicians proposing a new, doctor-driven, private-public, "Mayo Clinic-like" hospital facility in metro were an emblematic example of the sort of backward, stick-in-the-mud attitudes and reactionary, tunnel-vision thinking that keep Nova Scotia an underachieving backwater.

McNeil trotted out the customary boilerplate about defending the sacrosanct public health care system from the evils of profit motive or market accountability, trotting out the old FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about privatization of health care delivery leading to (horrors!) - two-tiered health care, with NDP leader Darrell Dexter chiming in with his labour-union constituency's pet trope about private hospitals and clinics supposedly luring doctors and nurses away from the public system.

The 2006 memo, reportedly authored and signed by Capital Health surgeon Robert Stone, lays out a concept for clinics or centres that "should not be staffed by 'unionized' personnel

It would focus on providing endoscopy; breast health services; prostate therapy; various other diagnostics; orthopedic surgery, other same-day surgeries, and executive preventive health - all procedures that do not require the facilities of a fully-equipped and staffed, acute-care surgical hospital.
For which there is a strong demand that isn't being met in a timely fashion by the current public system, and which helps keep waiting lists long for other, more complex surgeries and treatments.

It's just, plain inefficient and a misuse of scarce resources.

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Two great stories about Canadian health care professionals

Here are two interesting stories I came across, about two Canadian health care professionals who have been active elsewhere in the world to share knowledge with their local health care professional counterparts.

Both are on their own, unique mission:

The first is Dr. Laura Louie, a naturopathic doctor from Vancouver, who set up an acupuncture clinic for HIV infected people in Thailand.

"It's Tuesday morning and Louie is only a few days off the plane from Canada when she arrives at the Mae On Clinic, bright and early so she can consult with head nurse Unchalee Pultajuk before the patients start arriving for the weekly HIV-acupuncture clinic."

"........Patients move from the acupuncture beds to a chair where a Tui Na massage completes their treatment. The traditional Chinese massage is done with bare hands -- "with healing, touch is so important"

The second is Dr. David Chaulk, a pediatrician from Alberta, who teaches Yemeni health care professionals the advanced knowledge from Canada and to help them catch-up.

“When I first arrived in Yemen and began teaching it was easy to have a feeling of superiority — for lack of a better word,” Chaulk said. “As Canadian physicians we have far better education, far superior training and more experience."

"..........You see two children to a bed, two patients with one intravenous infusion going to both patients and extremely malnourished, dehydrated and dying children that would be in intensive care units in Canada lying on a bed, being cared for primarily by the parents and with no monitoring equipment or any type of modern medical devices..........."

Enjoy reading the full stories (just click on their names)

Medical Honey back in the health care game

Amid growing concern over drug-resistant super bugs and non-healing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature's original antibiotic honey, is making a comeback.

More than 4,000 years after Egyptians began applying honey to wounds, Derma Sciences Inc., a New Jersey based American company with branches in China and Toronto, that makes medicated and other advanced wound care products, began selling the first honey-based dressing this fall after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

It is called Medihoney, it's made from a highly absorbent seaweed-based material, saturated with Manuka honey, a particularly potent type that experts say kills germs and speeds healing.

Also called Leptospermum honey, Manuka honey comes from hives of bees that collect nectar from manuka and jelly bushes in Australia and New Zealand.

Derma Sciences now sells two Medihoney dressings to hospitals, clinics and doctors in North and South America under a deal with supplier Comvita LP of New Zealand.Derma Sciences hopes to have its dressings in U.S. and Canadian drug stores in the next six months, followed by adhesive strips.

Comvita, which controls about 75 percent of the world's Manuka honey supply, sells similar products under its own name in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, where such products have been popular for over a decade.

"The reason that Medihoney is so exciting is that antibiotics are becoming ineffective at fighting pathogens," said Derma Sciences CEO Ed Quilty.

"Another big advantage is that the dressings' germ-fighting and fluid-absorbing effects last up to a week, making them convenient for patients being cared for at outpatient clinics or by visiting nurses."

"They also reduce inflammation and can eliminate the foul odors of infected wounds," he said.

Honey dressings and gels, as well as tubes of Manuka honey, have been gaining in popularity overseas, fueled by scientific reports on their medical benefits and occasional news accounts of the dramatic recovery of a patient with a longtime wound that suddenly healed.

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