Health Care

The World Health Organization defines health as ”a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Health is determined by your social and economic status, nutrition, housing, family supports, and wider environment.”

If we are serious about improving people’s health, we must get serious about addressing the root causes of illness. My entire platform is about improving our health through building a healthy society; only a small part of that involves improving the health care system.

Health care is my profession and my passion. Through my experience working in the health care system I have seen the great difference that health care workers can make in people’s lives. I have also seen the inefficiencies, the gaps in services, and the systemic shortcomings that allow many to fall through the cracks.

The fight for Medicare was one of the most important victories in the history of our party and our country. The gains made in that struggle have improved the lives of countless Canadians over the intervening years. The threat of private parallel delivery, promoted by those who view health care as a commodity which can be delivered most efficiently through a business-oriented model and those who stand to profit from this model, frequently rears its head and the battle resumes. That argument has caused us, the people who understand how much better a single-payer publicly-funded health system is for people, to become entrenched in our positions and resulted in us simply defending the status quo.

To build a healthy society we need to stop simply defending Medicare and look to expand and improve our universal coverage.

Drugs are the fastest growing cost in health care budgets, personal and public. Many of my patients have declined to access prescription drugs to manage illnesses like diabetes due to the prohibitive cost. We need a strategy to decrease costs for the system and improve access for individuals. Be it a drug insurance plan, a provincial formulary, or another mechanism yet to be designed (see Dream Bigger Yet below), we need to use the buying and regulatory power of government to keep costs reasonable and provide people with the medications they need.

Our province has a growing population of seniors. More and more are living in private personal care homes and publicly funded long-term care homes. Bed shortages are chronic and facilities are full of residents whose level of care is above that for which the facility is designed. While it will be necessary to have more facilities, we also need to offer training, home care and financial support for families so that seniors can stay safely longer in their own homes.

Electronic Medical Records play an essential role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health care delivery. The best paper charts are still disorganized and contribute to medical error. As a province we should choose one provider that clinics and hospitals can use to take advantage of computerized records. We must also provide the transition support and training so that these records are well used, protecting the privacy of patient information while allowing the maximum ease of access and communication for appropriate health professionals.

Communication and collaboration among the different members of the primary health care team have to improve so that we can have the prevention we need to keep people from getting seriously ill. This is better for people and less costly in the long run. This increased collaboration needs to happen early in training, in programs such as SWITCH but also in the development of teams of doctors, nurse practitioners, home care nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, physiotherapists and more, working together to make real change in the health of our communities.

Rural populations have an increasingly difficult time attracting health care providers. I have been working with the College of Medicine on a plan to increase the number of students trained in rural areas. This model is being explored by a number of health science programs, including nursing. Training students in rural areas means they are more likely to develop relationships with those centres and return there to practice. We must remember that for-profit medicine will never provide the care needed in the rural areas. But we must also take the steps to ensure that the Canada Health Act principle of access is entrenched by implementing a long-term strategy for recruiting health professionals to rural areas.

Dream Big – Saskatchewan used to have a Children’s Dental Care Program. I remember going to school in Coderre for check-ups and fluoride treatments. Since this program was dismantled the oral health of all Saskatchewan children has suffered, in particular for children in low income families. Poor dental health is linked to many other health problems as adults.

We can and should reinstitute this program. This requires a significant investment in equipment and personnel, but is overall an economical means of providing oral care. In the meantime there is the dental sealant program, which is an inexpensive and effective means of preventing tooth decay. This pilot project, which operated in Saskatoon’s Core Neighbourhoods, including at SWITCH, was cancelled shortly after the Sask Party came into power. With those less fortunate at the greatest risk of oral health problems, this seems an extremely short-sighted decision. Improving health through a Children’s Dental Plan is something we could really sink our teeth into.

Dream Bigger Yet: SaskPharm. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the world’s most profitable. Prescription drugs are the fastest growing cost in our health budget. Why don’t we make our own generic drugs? This is perfectly legal and would allow us to sell medications to ourselves at cost (much less than we currently buy them for), to the general public at a greatly discounted price, and to other jurisdictions at a profit. A research and development industry would thrive in this context, resulting in increased economic activity and opportunities for agricultural diversity (medicines come from plants, after all). Ultimately we could see Saskatchewan-designed medications that meet our health needs, reducing health care costs while improving the health of our people and our economy.