Battle over language in Winnipeg's St. Boniface General Hospital

A language battle is brewing at one of Winnipeg's leading medical institutions.

Since October 14th, nursing jobs posted for the Woman and Child program at St. Boniface General Hospital list the ability to speak French as one of the qualifications.

That has some nurses worried the ability to speak French is taking priority over skill and experience, possibly putting patient care at risk.

"They've started hiring people into positions and taking French language qualifications over top of nursing experience," said nurse Tamara Burnham, a 14-year nursing veteran who works in the St. Boniface program that includes obstetrics and gynecology.

"With all the things going on in health care, to focus in on that doesn't make sense."

Manitoba Nurses Union Local 5 says it's gone to court to fight the French language requirement because it violates their collective agreement and common sense.

The nurses union went to court October 23rd after the Labour Board refused to hear the matter.
Their suit said the Labour Board erred when it refused to hear their complaint that the hospital committed an unfair labour practice by changing the conditions of employment and refusing to negotiate.

The hospital has a hard time filling all of its nursing shifts, never mind requiring that they're filled by French-speaking staff, said Burnham.

Burnham said she has never seen a francophone patient's treatment hampered because of a language barrier.
Most Franco-Manitobans can also speak English, she said.

"A very real problem, however, exists with the growing number of immigrants who speak neither official language," she said.

"If the hospital wanted to address a real language barrier, it would hire interpreters who speak languages like Urdu, Hindi and Mandarin," she said.
The hospital has volunteer interpreters who speak 60 languages but they're not always available when you need them, she said.

Burnham said she has seen women in labour unable to get pain medication because of a language barrier.

"You can't get informed consent because you don't know if they understand," said Burnham. "If it's a delivery, you can't stop a baby from coming," she said.

"Too bad they couldn't spend this much time and energy to have interpreters on call."

Union local president Debbie Mintz said the hospital hasn't done a demographic study of the patient population since the early 1990s, and doesn't know how the client population in Winnipeg has changed.

The hospital says it has to expand services in French.

"St. Boniface General Hospital has a government-conferred responsibility to actively offer and provide services in French to its patients, their families and the public," hospital spokeswoman Helene Vrignon wrote in a statement.

"To meet our legislated responsibility, a small number of staff in direct patient care positions must be bilingual French and English.
In fact, health services in the language of your choice is a basic component of quality of care."

Major investments in Health Care in Calgary and Edmonton

The Alberta Cunstruction Magazine reports there's a lot of work to be done in the years to come.

For Health and Wellness for just the two regions, there’s more than $1.6 billion worth of work. For advanced education, there’s $250 million for Calgary and more than $400 million for Edmonton over the next four years.

A number of factors are driving the construction boom in health care facilities: an aging population, an increase in population in high-growth areas such as Fort McMurray, and a desire to keep Alberta on the leading edge in research, technology, and world-class facilities.

The Alberta government reports funding for Health and Wellness is up $1.3 billion (12.2 per cent) for the 2007–08 budget year.
Over the next three years, the Alberta government has slated $2.6 billion for health facilities, including $250 million to replace the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Grande Prairie, $221 million to cover cost escalation on health projects that have already been approved, and $26.4 million for the Northern Lights Health Region to build infrastructure for health care providers in the regions and new community health clinics.
In addition, a helicopter platform will be added at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre.

Money will also go towards 30 previously approved projects.
Those include construction of community health centres in Red Deer, Calgary, and Edmonton, as well as long-term care facilities in Red Deer, Edmonton, High Prairie, Vermilion, and Vegreville.

The new multi-use facilities will offer excellence in health care for patients and learning opportunities for post-secondary students.

For instance, the Edmonton Clinic, a partnership between Capital Health and University of Alberta, models itself after the Mayo Clinic, a one-stop shop that houses multiple clinics in one place.
Construction, expected to open in 2011 at a cost of $909 million, begins this year.

In Calgary, 2008 marks the first full year of work on the $1.25-billion South Health Campus. The campus will bring together wellness, health research and education on a 44-acre campus located at Deerfoot Trail and 196th Avenue SE.

The 160,000 sq.m health campus will consist of heath services, including surgery and operating rooms, pediatrics, obstetrics, mental heath, as well as emergency and outpatient services. It will also focus on wellness services and research and education. Phase I is scheduled to open in the spring of 2011.

Canadian Blood Services needs 'New Blood', literally!

As we continue through the holiday season, there's one gift that's always in demand: blood.

About every minute, someone in Canada needs a blood transfusion.

It's disturbing to learn then that a sizable portion of the population can't donate needed blood or bone marrow because they don't speak English or French.

Apparently, Canadian Blood Services can't accept blood from these people because of concern over their inability to accurately answer sensitive questions about their health and lifestyle that could affect the safety of the blood supply.

The service says it doesn't have either the staff to translate applications or nurses who speak multiple languages.

In a province where more than a quarter of the residents don't speak English or French as a first language, it's a significant issue.

Especially since the best chance of finding a match for some products like bone marrow is within a recipient's own ethnic group.

We'd have thought Canadian Blood Services would try harder to accommodate our multi-racial and multi-lingual reality. The language barrier isn't one that can't be overcome.

As far as safety is concerned, while many questions asked of donors help to pre-screen blood, afterwards the blood itself is tested for hepatitis, AIDS and a variety of other diseases.

The existing pool of blood donors is becoming older and fewer.
If the Canadian Blood Service hopes to do its job in the future, it's going to have to make changes.

We need new blood, literally!

This year, in British Columbia , Canadian Blood Services will need to collect 1,200 red blood cells or platelet donations by January 4th to help meet hospital needs.

For all of Canada, call Canadian Blood Services at 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) for blood donor clinic information, eligibility information or to book an appointment.

Source: Chilliwack Times

Supervisor appointed in Brampton Civic Hospital

Ken White, former CEO at Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga, will at least spend the next six to nine months, coming up with an action plan to improve communication between the hospital and the community, ensure proper staffing and reduce wait times in the emergency ward.

Amid reports that a patient had the wrong leg operated on at Brampton Civic, Ontario's first public-private hospital, Health Minister George Smitherman has named the supervisor who will look into problems at the new facility.

"People in the community should expect more answers to the questions raised ... What we see here is evidence of the need to do better," Smitherman told a press conference at the Brampton site of the William Osler Health Centre yesterday.

Smitherman took the rare step of appointing a supervisor to restore public confidence in Brampton Civic after the deaths of Harnek Sidhu, 52, of pancreatitis and Amarjit Narwal, 42, of a stroke, sparked a huge community protest in early December.

Then, on Christmas Day, 72-year-old Amar Kaur Brar complained doctors cut open her right leg by mistake when she went to hospital for surgery on her fractured left leg.

Although he had been an investigator at Brampton Civic for about a year, helping it to ramp up to its opening on October 28th, White said he was "not at all familiar" with concerns raised by the community about a shortage of staff, unduly long waits in emergency and a lack of beds.

"It's very sad there's all kinds of these misadventures in health care happening across Canada," White told reporters in an interview after the press conference.

Smitherman blamed "mischief makers" and alluded to persistent negative media reports about problems at the hospital since it opened as being a factor in attracting staff to work at the centre.

Some of those reports have been "pretty far off the mark," he said.

Brampton Civic, which replaced Peel Memorial Hospital, "overnight gained 100 beds, which is unheard of in health care" today, said Smitherman.
However, he did acknowledge staffing challenges.

Source: The Star

This is a video from CBC News concerning the appointment of Ken White

Related Articles:

Brampton Civic Hospital operates on wrong leg

Brampton Civic hospital has cost $340 million more than planned

Brampton Civic Hospital under fire

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)

Canada recruits hundreds of Practical Nurses from Jamaica

Hundreds of Jamaicans were recruited in October to work in health care, the construction and hospitality service sectors in British Columbia through the Ministry's Canadian Overseas Employment Programme.

The group included mainly certified practical nurses, but also a group of pipe-fitters, welders, and carpenters.

Over the years, Jamaicans have been recruited to work in Ontario, Montreal, Quebec and New Brunswick on the Overseas Farm Work Programme but this is the first time that employees are being requested for the health care, hospitality and construction sectors.

Canada will be recruiting approximately 2,000 practical nurses by the end of 2008.

As part of the recruitment programme, there is a partnership between the Okanagan College and the HEART/NTA, to ensure the certification of workers so that they will be ready to go directly into the workforce once they arrive in Canada.

Source: JIS

Statistics Canada underestimates our health care system, report says

Canadians are likely getting more value from the health care system than Statistics Canada's figures suggest, says an Ottawa-based think tank in a report criticizing the agency for shoddy estimates.

In a report to be released today and obtained by The Canadian Press, the Centre for the Study of Living Standards says Statistics Canada "may seriously underestimate" the health care system's true economic effectiveness.

It also says the agency "should devote more effort to develop better estimates of output and productivity."

"The true contribution of the health-care sector to the well-being of the Canadian population ... is not being captured in current estimates of health-care output and productivity," the report says.

Statistics Canada estimates productivity in the health care and social assistance industry fell 0.69 per cent per year from 1987-2006, the report says.

The report says that's in opposition to a 1.14 per cent increase in overall productivity in Canada during the same 20-year period.

"It is widely recognized, including by Statistics Canada officials, that these numbers may seriously underestimate the true contribution of the health-care sector to real output, and more importantly to the economic well-being of Canadians," it says.

Reached at his in-laws' house in Toronto, Andrew Sharpe, one of the authors of the report and the executive director of the centre, said the statistics agency's measurement system is flawed.

"It's an input-based measure that doesn't give you a true measure of the output of the sector," he said.

"So, there's a massive downward biased output in the health care sector in the official numbers."

The report notes several European countries and the United States are starting to measure actual output of their health care systems, and suggests Canada adopt this framework.

It suggests Statistics Canada's measurements might not fully account for improvements in the quality of health care. It notes life expectancy in Canada rose by 5.3 years from 1979 to 2004.

There will be "very different" policy implications depending on whether increased health spending stems from higher prices or improving quality, the report says.

Times&Transcript

Benefactress to Canadian Health Care Beryl Ivey dies

Beryl Ivey, an iconic philanthropist who for decades supported education, health care and the arts across Ontario and beyond, died on Christmas day at the age of 82.

Ms. Ivey suffered a heart attack Sunday and was hospitalized in Toronto.

She died there Christmas morning, three days shy of her 83rd birthday.

Ms. Ivey's son Richard said that his mother was in "vintage form" right up until her death.

As news of the death slowly spread, praise poured in for Ms. Ivey, who, along with her husband, donated an estimated $150-million to various causes through the Ivey Foundation.

"This city and province and country has lost a great Canadian," said Tony Dagnone, former chief executive of the London Health Sciences Centre.

At the University of Western Ontario, whose business school now bears the Ivey name, the effects of her generosity cannot be overstated, UWO president Paul Davenport said.
A private funeral will take place in London on Friday and a memorial will be held at a later date.

Born Beryl Nurse in 1924 in Chatham, Ontario, she was a celebrated track star when she arrived at UWO in 1943.
She married Dick Ivey, whom she met two months into her first year at UWO.

Dick's father, Richard G. Ivey, incorporated the Ivey Foundation in 1947.
Beryl, however, is credited with the businesslike approach to philanthropy the family adopted in the 1970s.

In June, she was named to the Order of Canada.

Her friend Bill Brady, who called Ms. Ivey "a remarkable force" - said she was "no pushover" when it came to cash.

"You had to make a strong case for financial support.
You had to prove it was worthwhile. I can't think of another philanthropic family who did the kind of research they did."

Globe and Mail

Safety warning by Health Canada for sleep drug Alertec

Health Canada has issued a warning about serious skin and allergic reactions related to Alertec, a drug used to relieve excessive sleepiness due to narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea and shift-work sleep disorders.

The federal agency said patients taking Alertec (modafinil) should seek immediate medical attention if they have any of the following symptoms: skin rash, hives, sores in the mouth, blisters and skin peeling; swelling of the face, eyes, lips, tongue or throat; trouble swallowing or breathing; or a hoarse voice.

Alertec, made by Shire Canada Inc., is not approved in Canada for use in children for any condition.

The drug can cause mental problems. Depression, anxiety, hallucinations, mania and suicidal thoughts have been reported in patients using the drug, although these events were rare during controlled studies.

Health Canada says anyone experiencing such psychiatric conditions should stop taking Alertec and seek medical attention.

Those taking the drug should tell their doctor if they have any heart problems, chest pain, have had a heart attack or a history of psychiatric disorders. There have been previous but rare reports of severe life-threatening skin reactions and allergic reactions in adults and children using Alertec.

Two of the more severe forms of skin reaction are known as toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), either of which may quickly develop into a serious condition. There are no known factors that can predict the risk of occurrence or the severity of rash associated with Alertec.

Shire Canada has sent a letter to Canadian health-care professionals informing them of the new safety information.

The Canadian Press

Two children's heart doctors for Winnipeg Regional

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has successfully recruited two children's heart doctors from London, Ont.

WRHA spokeswoman Heidi Graham confirmed doctors Dion Pepelassis and Ilan Buffo of the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario were "aggressively recruited" to come work at Winnipeg's Children's Hospital, which has only one pediatric cardiologist for a population of 1.2 million.

The London doctors will leave their positions in Ontario at the end of June. The two are then expected to start in Winnipeg next summer, said Graham.

The move has left the Southwestern Ontario region with no such specialists for 450,000 kids.

"As every other jurisdiction does when there's a shortage, we recruit," said Graham.

"Manitoba has been short two cardiac specialists since this past summer," she said. The WRHA has been searching for specialists across Canada and the U.S. for months.

The two heart doctors weren't talking yesterday, but the London Health Sciences Centre's senior medical director for women and children said he believes they were offered "a very attractive overall package" in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Sun

Country-wide Physicians' health checkup

Doctors across the country are getting a checkup.

A national study launched by the Centre for Physician Health and Well-being of the Canadian Medical Association will survey physicians' health, from nutrition and physical activity to job satisfaction and burnout.

"There's abundant data in the literature showing a relationship between mental health issues such as depression and exercise for example," said Dr. Erica Frank, the principal investigator and the Canada Research Chair in Preventative Medicine and Population Health at the University of British Columbia.

"There are a number of other areas that we'll be looking at as well. One of the key pieces that we're going to be looking at is physicians' personal health practices because there's a lot of really interesting research that shows that can really make a difference in the population."

The surveys are sent out to more than 8,000 randomly selected practising physicians.

Dr. Vino Padayachee, the chief of staff at St. Joseph's Hospital of Estevan and the past Saskatchewan Medical Association president, is keen to participate and hopes many of his counterparts do the same.

"This is not just about physician health," he said. "Indirectly it's about patient health. If you have healthy physicians, then you'll have healthy patients. We don't allow airline pilots to fly beyond a certain number of hours because of the risk to the passengers and we should look at the same thing for physicians as well."

CMA research conducted in 2003 reported that 46 per cent of physician respondents were in advanced stages of burnout.

Read the full story here

Saskatchewan Union of Nurses might go on strike

In Saskatchewan, angry union leaders were assessing their options Thursday, a day after the provincial government proposed sweeping changes to labour law, including new essential services legislation.

It appears health care workers could be the first on the battles lines early in 2008 in the fight against the legislation.

Major contracts affecting health care workers, including the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) which represents more than 7,000 registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses, are slated to expire March 31.

Union leaders said Thursday they are not pleased by the essential services legislation.

While no one talked specifically about going on strike in defiance of essential services legislation, similar actions have happened in the past, such as in 1999 when SUN continued on strike in defiance of back-to-work legislation introduced by the NDP government in power at the time.

Read the full article here

Premier Nova Scotia wants to allow more private competition in health care

Rodney MacDonald, Nova Scotia's Premier, should be applauded for his openness to a greater role for private competition in health care.
In his recent state-of-the-province address, he said specifically that the provincial government was moving towards a greater role for the private sector in the delivery of publicly funded health services.

For far too long, Canada has been out of step with the rest of the industrialized world in its steadfast opposition to tapping into the competitive market for solutions to our health care woes, to the detriment of both patients and taxpayers alike.

Consider for a moment what Canadians receive in return for this steadfast commitment to the status quo.
Among the 28 developed nations that have universal health insurance programs, Canada ranks third in age-adjusted health care spending as a percentage of GDP.

At the same time, Canadians endure relatively poor access to physicians and medical technologies, while wait times for health care in Canada are not just unacceptably long but are among the longest in the developed world.
Perhaps a closer look at why other countries are getting more for less is in order.

Among the world’s 28 most developed nations that have universal health insurance coverage like Canada, the majority allow private providers to deliver publicly funded services.

All of the nations that outperform Canada across several measures of mortality related to health system performance (Australia, Sweden and Japan) employ private competitive providers in the delivery of publicly funded health care.

Allowing private hospitals to compete for the delivery of publicly funded care is a proven policy that would improve the state of Medicare for all Canadians.

Premier MacDonald’s willingness to sit down and take an honest look at those policies that have worked so well elsewhere in the developed world, bodes well for both patients and taxpayers in Nova Scotia.

Read the full story here

Calgary Counselling Centre threatened to loose its residence

The Calgary Counselling Centre, since 1962, has provided counselling programs to help individuals, families, couples, children, men and women resolve domestic abuse, depression, stress, emotional and social programs.
Last year, the non-profit organization served 6367 clients, through 32,264 hours of counselling.

Through its ongoing research and education program, Calgary Counselling Centre strives to meet the changing needs of the community.

Now, with 10 working days notice, the Calgary Counselling Centre is in jeopardy of losing the space they have leased and occupied since June 1992.

Mid way through a ten year lease, the Calgary Counselling Centre has been advised that its lease may be terminated on coming 31 December.

Editor's opinion:

"Is it coincidence or well planned that health care workers are being told life changing bad news just before Christmas?
Earlier this week I already reported about the Victorian nurses in Hamilton who were told they'd loose their jobs coming April.
What is it with these people, these bringers of bad news?
Do they think that those people won't kill themselves around Christmas when around family and friends?
A happy Christmas to you too, you inconsiderate @%%40!e5"

Health Committee Nova Scotia: "government tries to create crisis"

A recently organized citizens’ health committee in Nova Scotia, feels the government is trying to create a crisis to push for privatization by closing hospital emergency departments.

Judy Davis, spokeswoman for the North Shore Citizens’ Health Committee, said the provincial government has been creating a sense of crisis in the health care system for years, and the emergency department closures scheduled at Lillian Fraser Memorial Hospital in Tatamagouche this week is one of its methods.

“Why is the ER closing again?” asked Davis. “Despite bringing a new doctor to the area, the provincial government is failing to solve the problems.”

Health Minister Chris D’Entremont said he would much rather see committees created to look at solutions to heath care issues working through district health authorities and the Department of Health, who are well aware of issues affecting the health-care system.

“I think it is preposterous to see that kind of misunderstanding of the health- care system and exactly what happens in it,” said D’Entremont about the committee’s allegations.
“ER closures are something we’re living with. It is something that is going to happen from time to time.
“It’s an issue that is happening all across Canada not just here. But to see them try to attach it to the issue of private health care, or what have you, it is absolutely preposterous."

The minister said the department has been grappling with human health resource issues for a while and solutions are very slow in coming as people train to fill vacant positions.

“A couple locums have been located and will be in place at Lillian Fraser Memorial Hospital as of January so that will mitigate any closures that will happen there for a while,” said D’Entremont.
Davis feels one of the solutions to improve health care in Tatamagouche would be to bring a nurse practitioner to the area.

In the new year, working to establish a nurse practitioner in the community, along with keeping the emergency department at the rural hospital open, are top priorities for the local committee, organized by the Nova Scotia Citizens’ Health Care Network.

Truro Daily News

Alberta might eliminate health premiums

It's for the first time Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach is talking about the possibility of eliminating health care premiums as part of his party’s next election platform.

Even though Alberta has been awash in surplus cash for years, the Progressive Conservative government has resisted the idea of dropping health premiums, which only exist in three provinces.
But now Stelmach is signaling that a policy change may be in the works for premiums, which cost $1,056 per year for families and $528 for singles.

Earlier this week Ontario's premier McGuinty announced that despite soaring government revenues, health tax is not going to be scrapped for Ontarians. (read related article here)

“The revenue is close to $1 billion,” he told The Canadian Press in a year-end interview.
“There are a number of ideas coming forward from people that are looking at developing policy positions for the campaign. But we’re far from making any kind of decisions.”

Health Minister Dave Hancock said he has been talking to government caucus members for months about how the province can eliminate or at least reduce health premiums for some people.
Hancock says he would like to see the province create incentives for people to lead healthy lifestyles. "Whether we collect it as a premium or we collect it as tax, we should give people credit for the things that they do to remain healthy," he said Wednesday in an interview.

The message to Albertans would be: "We can take health-care premiums off, but you have to do something for it."

“That’s what I’m promoting, that we take a look at how you can earn your premium back by doing some pre-screening tests, by engaging in health activity, those sort of things.”

The group Friends of Medicare was delighted to hear that the government appears to have had a change of heart over health premiums, which are also charged in Ontario and British Columbia.

“This is the time to get rid of these premiums. We’ve never been wealthier,” said Suzanne Marshall, executive director of the Edmonton-based lobby group.

Edmonton Sun

Goverment criticized about care refugee claimant Singh

Volunteers are caring for quadriplegic refugee claimant Laibar Singh 24 hours a day, but it is unclear how many of them have formal medical training, despite his supporters' assertions that he needs access to Canada's top-notch medical care.

Harjap Grewal, a spokesman for Mr. Singh and refugee advocate with No One is Illegal, said in an interview that hundreds have volunteered to care for Mr. Singh since an aneurysm left him paralyzed, but he did not provide specific numbers of formally trained people who have been tending to him.

He said that a maximum of 10 people with training as nurses or doctors have volunteered to care for Mr. Singh, but that most volunteers are not health-care professionals. They have been helping him with needs such as hygiene and going to the bathroom that he cannot handle himself.

Mr. Grewal added that Mr. Singh would not receive the treatment he needs in India because neither he nor his children can afford to pay for it.

"A lot of people have the means to make sure that he gets that care here," he said.

Harsha Walia, also with No One is Illegal, said that money for Mr. Singh's care has come through community donations. For example, Maninder Gill, owner of Radio India, has donated $5,000 toward his care.

When asked why such donations could not be used to pay for private health care in India, Mr. Singh's home country, Ms. Walia said his case is a "simple issue of justice and humanity."

"If that argument were to be made that everyone here that's in need of care just raised money and went somewhere else, it defies a basic value of human dignity," she said. "His wish is that he feels safe here. He chooses to be with his community here."

Read the rest of the story here

"His condition just deteriorates rapidly every time he's put through this game that the government's playing...................................."

GlobeAndMail

Drug industry used too much as source for Doctors' prescription

Following my earlier article of today about drug use among seniors:

Dr. John Haggie, a Canadian Medical Association board member who chairs its ad hoc working group on pharmaceutical issues, said government warnings often get lost in the stack of documents physicians routinely receive.

Haggie warns that there is a lack of impartial information available to doctors.

"Most of the information the physician would receive in the general course of a week on medication by and large tends to come from material from drug companies," he said.

Drug companies have a very active sales and marketing team, he said, and they follow Health Canada warnings by issuing their own.

Health Canada warnings are sent out to physicians by fax, e-mail and mail, but are often one among many documents received.

Haggie said the CMA is trying to work with the academic community to provide doctors with unbiased education material to replace documents received from drug companies.

The association is also trying to get tools on its website so doctors can quickly access the latest peer-reviewed information on what drugs are safe and which need to be used with caution.

Source: CBC

Related article:

Dangerous drugs still prescribed to seniors

editor's opinion:

"Just as I thought...............the power of marketing"

Dangerous drugs still prescribed to seniors

Doctors are still prescribing dangerous drugs to seniors, despite government warnings.

Over two years ago was reported, that more than a million seniors were prescribed atypical antipsychotics. Atypical antipsychotics are specific kinds of antipsychotic drugs. They are considered by many experts to be ineffective or even dangerous for elderly patients.

Health Canada followed up with warnings pointing to the drugs' side effects according to 13 scientific studies, which included a 60 percent greater risk of death in seniors who were taking the drugs than in patients taking placebos.
It also warned that elderly patients taking atypical antipsychotics were almost twice as likely to die from side effects such as heart failure.

In its advisory, Health Canada requested that the drugs' manufacturers include a warning describing the risk in the safety information sheet provided along with the drugs, and that health care providers refrain from relying too much on the drugs to treat dementia.

Atypical antipsychotics are drugs such as Risperidone (Risperdal), Quetiapine (Seroquel), Olanzapine (Zyprexa) and Clozapine (Clozaril).
Many of these types of drugs have never been tested on seniors.
They are intended to treat severe mood disorders, symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults under 65.

A new investigation has revealed that the number of prescriptions of these drugs for seniors actually increased in spite of and after the Health Canada warnings.
They shot up in six provinces, including in Ontario and Quebec.

In some cases, they increased by 40 percent, according to sales data provided by IMS Health, a business intelligence and strategic pharmaceutical and health-care consulting firm.

Read the rest of CBC's story here

Editor's opinion:

"Hmm, I wonder if the drug industry with its incentive programs has anything to do with it..................."

In Newfoundland and Labrador an initiative for drug use among seniors has just been announced last week:

New program to help seniors taking medication in a safer way

IT solution makes Jewish General Hospital in Montreal more efficient

At Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, you won’t hear the buzzers triggered by patients’ call buttons, and you won’t hear the public address system paging doctors.

Physicians and nurses now carry wireless telephones that work over the hospital’s computer network.
Call buttons with voice capabilities are linked to the phone system, so a patient in need can let an assigned nurse know what the problem is right away rather than just ringing a buzzer at the nursing station.

"It means better response to patients’ needs and it means doctors waste less time," says Stephen Rosenthal, the hospital’s associate director of medical informatics.

In the past, Dr. Rosenthal explains, the usual way to reach a doctor was to page him or her via the public address system. This added noise in an already busy environment where patients need quiet. The doctor being paged had to find a telephone to call back, and by that time the person at the other end might be unavailable.

Cellphones weren’t an option because of potential interference with some sensitive medical equipment, Dr. Rosenthal says.
But the wireless IP phones serve the same purpose: Calls can now go directly to the doctor, eliminating the paging and telephone tag.

Jewish General first tried a wireless phone system in its emergency room, using older technology, then switched to a voice over IP (VOIP) network and expanded throughout inpatient areas about a year ago. This past summer it was extended into outpatient clinics as well.
Put together by IBM Canada Ltd. and Symbol Technologies Inc., the system now supports about 100 phones for physicians, nurses and administrators.

Read the full story here

Editor's opinion:

"This is a great example of how technology can make communication processes in the hospital more efficient. It will reduce time which can be better used to serve patients. More institutions in health care and hospitals should adopt initiatives like this to cut costs.

There's a task for IT companies to promote their solutions and cater to the health care industry."