A newly created Primary Care Action Team has a lofty goal: to ensure all Ontarians have access to primary health care within five years. Here are five principals to consider to help achieve it.
Many doctors become reluctant to ask questions or seek help when uncertain. This is exactly the opposite of what most patients want in a doctor making crucial decisions about their care.
Health-care workers have a direct impact in areas of conflict due to their ability to provide care — and bear direct witness to atrocities. In Gaza, Canada and beyond, they must be heeded.
Mobility restrictions imposed on internationally trained physicians in Canada could be aggravating the health-care crisis intensifying an ongoing doctor shortage.
Some professions offer rehabilitation for workers guilty of misconduct. But the rules in New Zealand are inconsistent and a better model could save careers and public investment in expensive training.
In the majority of cases, medications help patients. But even when treatment of individual illnesses is effective, treatment as a whole can become problematic.
Australia is recruiting more overseas-trained doctors to fill doctor shortages. But when a high-income country like Australia does this, we risk causing a ‘brain drain’ elsewhere.
Doctors use social media for reasons ranging from the strictly professional to the highly personal: They connect with colleagues, raise awareness of social issues and educate the public on health topics.
Canada has a lack of transparency about Big Pharma’s payments to health-care providers and organizations. Disclosure is voluntary, and there’s no central data on even the few companies that do report.
A 2023 Senate inquiry report described abortion access in Australia as a ‘lottery’. Barbara Baird’s research doesn’t describe chance, but an inadequate system. What needs to change?
Internal reviews are insufficient to investigate discrimination by hospital administrators and external frameworks are needed to protect employees who face bullying and harassment.
The shortage of family doctors affects not only patients, but the entire health-care system. A strong primary care foundation increases average lifespan, improves overall health and reduces costs.
Each encounter that health-care students have with patients and families helps them understand real-world patient needs. That means all Canadians have a role in educating future health-care providers.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne