Canada Moms Blog

I'll have some aspirin please, some body wash, and a vaccination

Nova Scotia is freeing up some room in your doctor's waiting room.

Amendments to the Pharmacy Act now mean that pharmacists in Nova Scotia will be able to administer vaccinations and order some diagnostic tests.  Imagine! Getting both the shopping done and having your jabs done all at once! Health Minister Maureen MacDonald says the goal is to take advantage of a pool of qualified professionals in order to free up doctors to concentrate on other areas of health care. Although unable to put a dollar figure on any potential savings, Health Minister Maureen McDonald says the move will create efficiencies in the health system.  As more pharmacists graduate, more will begin helping out.It's hoped the program will begin some time this year.

Cuts to BC Healthy Kids Causes Backlash From Critics (and me)

I have a mouthful of teeth that I wouldn't want you to look at. Seriously, I can't smile with my lips parted because I may possibly believe in those lens-cracking myths that rolled around forever ago.

Why am I so ashamed of my dental reality? I haven't been to the dentist since I was 15 years old, the last time that I was privy to affordable and/or free dentist visits.

Just in time for our basement neighbours to be applauding (or disliking) their upcoming health care reform, B.C. is tearing down a little bit of ours by reducing funding to the Healthy Kids program, one that provides free dental services to children under the age of five from low-income families.

I've come to realize that some Americans think that Canadians have free dental. Many of the people I've come to know, via blogging and writing, have been under the assumption that all services, whether specialty, general physician, surgical or dental, were covered by a single, massive umbrella, made of the word free. Not so!

America's Health Care Reform - One Step Forward

Last Sunday in the United States, the government signed into a law a bill that facilitated sweeping changes to the country’s current healthcare system.

Last week in Toronto, I had to rush my two-year-old to the hospital after she suddenly, alarmingly, clutched her neck and stopped moving. She was ok, but man did she give me a scare.

Both events got me thinking.

I got thinking about how very polarizing, controversial and hotly debated the former has been. And I got thinking about how very devastating the latter might have been – that is, if I had to actually deal with the former and not just write about it.

Admittedly, I do not know the minutiae of the health care reform issues on the table, but I do know and understand the big picture issues – I know and understand that millions of people in the United States cannot afford or qualify for health insurance, and therefore, must pay out of pocket when in need of medical assistance. I know that even when you can qualify for and afford health insurance, that insurance can easily be denied by a medical centre or practitioner because they are allowed to say that they don’t like the insurance you are probably paying a whole lot for. I know that my father needed FOUR different insurance policies just to be able to die, broke, in his hometown.

Workforce Wellness: Another name for don't ask, don't tell?

Way back when, before I learned my lesson, and before I came into the knowledge that freelancing was a viable option, I was a corporate shill. But I was a good little shill - I showed up early, and I billed out a staggering amount of hours. What's more, I worked a staggering amount of hours for free, all as a means of keeping on top of the ever-growing pile of capitalistic success. For my clients. I made, like, $30K annually.

It was for two reasons that I sometimes billed 65 hours a week and worked an additional 15: I was asked to do the work, and then, I was relied upon to do the work. Once I had been assigned a new area of responsibility, magically, no one else was able to take it on, and more and more weight was added to my lucky-to-be-employed shoulders.

A few years of that, plus some borderline abusive employers produced anxiety attacks. And now, five years after I've been out of the game, no longer finding myself clutching my chest and gasping for air, Steven Harper's government is rolling out a program to promote 'workforce wellness'? I don't buy it.

There is no Maternal health without Reproductive health.

It's times like these when I am truly, cringingly, embarrassed by our government.

It's no secret that I'm a pinko commie liberal. I believe in safety nets and socialized health care and helping those who are down on their luck. I believe in women's shelters and drug rehabs and needle exchange programs. I even listen religiously to the CBC. So it's not hard to find something for me to be angry about in most of our Conservative government's policies. However, this one goes beyond the pale, and not just for me. In their recently announced G8 initiative to promote maternal health in the developing world, the Tories have decided that birth control is not part of maternal health.

Gardisil pointless and dangerous? Merck researcher shares shocking info.

The Population Research Institute* is reporting on some shocking statements made by Dr. Diane Harper,  the leading international developer of the HPV vaccine, at the 4th Annual Public Conference on Vaccination on Gardisil the vaccine touted to prevent cervical cancer from HPV infections.

Here are some statistics that this Merck representative reportedly shared at this conference, taken directly from the Population Research Institute's article:

• 70% of HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment in one year.
• After two years, this rate climbs to 90%.
• Of the remaining 10% of HPV infections, only half coincide with the development of cervical cancer.
• 4 out of 5 women with cervical cancer are in developing countries (i.e. not the United States or Canada)
• 8 in 100,000 women will get cervical cancer.
• 1.3-3.7 will die from it.
• The cancer rate has been declining by 4% every year, since between 1955 to 1992 when the rate declined 74%, without any influence from a vaccine. [Link to American Cancer Society]
• There will be no decrease in cervical cancer until 70% of the population is vaccinated.
• The highest amount of decrease in cervical cancer will not be seen for 60 years.
• After 60 years, the highest predicted decrease will be 70%.
• No efficacy trials have been done on girls under 15.
• Merck did study a group of girls under 16 who had been vaccinated, but did not follow them long enough to conclude sufficient presence of effective HPV antibodies.
• If a child is vaccinated, she will not keep immunity until puberty and will need boosters.
• 15,037 girls have officially reported adverse side effects from Gardasil to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
• Adverse effects include Guilliane Barre, lupus, seizures, paralysis, blood clots, brain inflammation and many others.
• The CDC acknowledges that there have been 44 reported deaths.
• Dr. Harper  told ABC News that "The rate of serious adverse events is greater than the incidence rate of cervical cancer."

To Vaccinate, Or Not To Vaccinate

My husband and I don't have a problem with vaccinations in general. We took all three of our kids to get their "shots" (FOUR needles each time, here in B.C.) without any qualms. The crying and occasional fussiness was a pain (pun intended) at times, but we felt that it was a better alternative to them catching serious illnesses that could cost them their lives.

When it comes to the flu shot, however, we have never had our children vaccinated. Nor have we had ourselves vaccinated. We just haven't had any reason to, really. We know far too many people who have gotten the flu vaccine, only to end up catching a strain of the flu that apparently wasn't part of the vaccine. We also can't see the need to inject ourselves our children with the flu if we might not even catch it. Most years, we haven't gotten anything worse than a bad cold.

I am not saying that this choice is for everybody. There are people with weakened immune systems or people that work in environments that they are required to get the flu vaccine. Or, they just feel they need to get it. I am not crusading against the flu vaccine; it is just the decision that we have made for our family at this time.

This year, the topic has come up in our house because of the H1N1 virus (or "Swine flu"). We know a few people who have had it and they can attest to how horrible it really is. One elderly person in our community died from it last week.

The Vancouver Sun has an article that outlines when the vaccines for the regular flu and the H1N1 virus will be available. Health officials have found that people who receive the regular flu vaccine first are more susceptible to the H1N1 virus. So, you can get the H1N1 in November and the regular flu shot in 2010.

My husband talked to our family doctor (who is also a family friend) about it all. He stated that they expect that 30% of the population will come down with the H1N1 virus. Which, well, are pretty high odds. He also told us that the instant anyone has flu symptoms, they will be given Tamaflu to fight the infection.

We're pretty sure that we'll still opt out of the vaccine. Probably. We'll see what actually happens come November.

Original post to Canada Moms Blog.

Community Health Centres - A Good Health Care Answer

Health care reform - a huge topic on both sides of the border these days. This Canadian is not conversant enough with the proposals and present problems of the heated debate on extending health care coverage now raging in the USA. Nor am I entirely on one side or the other about 'two tier' provisions the Canadian Medical Association is presently snarling about. What I am familiar with, however, is the effect of really good quality health care on a sparsely populated and frighteningly poor part of Eastern Ontario.

I am the chair of a community board that provides governance for a type of health care delivery called a 'Community Health Centre'. We are an incorporated board with membership from all over the county where I live. We get a global budget issued to us by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care of the Province of Ontario and spend it to provide both primary health care and supportive services and programs, our decisions being based on the advice of our staff and the needs of our clients.

Healthcare from a Socialists Perspective

The ladies over at Silicon Valley Moms Blog came up with the idea that all the sites could blog about THEIR views on the current Health Care issues in the US.   Us Canadians have opinions too!  Here is mine.

I was born and spent my childhood in the UK.  Edinburgh, Scotland to be precise.

The National Health Service (NHS) was just the way it was for a child like me.   I didn't  think about it, and I don't think my parents did either.

Looking back (this was the 70's) I am sure some of the "service" would look frightening to more modern outsiders like the US.  Many hospitals appeared grim due to their Victorian and Edwardian age.  6 to 12 person wards were the norm.

But that has more to do with history than the service.

I'll keep my dilapitated, aging 'Nazi Socialist*' health care system over yours any day.

Born and raised in Canada I've known nothing different than going to the doctor if you're sick. Heading to the hospital for emergency care means having my health card with me. Nothing more.

For years, I knew nothing of the American health care system aside from what I had seen on TV: one image that resonates with me to this day is a man shot and left - dying - in an emergency room hallway on a gurney. No one had information about his insurance, or if he even had any and he was left there. Suffering. Overlooked because of a lack of paperwork.

That? That doesn't happen in Canada.

Hearing that my American friends owe THOUSANDS in health care costs for sick children, surgeries, CHILD BIRTH scares the ever living crap out of me.
The idea of losing my home, having my wages garnished and collection agencies having my number on speed dial for my child's birth makes me unconditionally happy to be a Canadian; to have this 'nazi socialist*' health care system available to me is a blessing.