Dr. Yoni Freedhoff outlines in an article written in this month’s CMAJ how Health Canada is pushing a policy that will allow fortification of foods with vitamins and minerals without any evidence that it will improve public health. Moreover, there is a real risk of overconsumption of said additions to our food supply that [...]

Ottawa Citizen journalist Dan Gardner castigates, and rightly so, how Olympic athletes sell out to corporations for oodles of cash without any consideration for the potential harm to public health outcomes. His column can be read here.

Madely Health Headlines Commentary for December 9, 2009

 

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Swine Flu Pandemic May Be Less Severe Than Expected

Dr. Tony Hsu, a Welland pediatrician in practice for 30 years died last week, his body recovered from Lake Ontario. Humiliated and abused by the Medical Review Committee (MRC), his plight, profiled by CTV’s Avis Favro last November, showed us a caring and dedicated physician destroyed by the committee. Dr. Hsu worked on-call one every two nights, provided free service to the Children’s Aid Society and was respected and admired by his patients and colleagues alike.

A recent column by Christina Spencer, John Robson’s radio commentary on CFRA and Citizen Editorial eloquently criticized the Quebec government’s abuse of legislative power over its physician population. In Quebec, all physicians who have worked in an emergency room in the previous four years will now be forced to work in them whether they wish to or not regardless of their qualifications to do so. Should they refuse they will be slapped with a $5000 daily fine.

A recent Dave Brown column touched upon the thorny issue of patient chart transfer requests. He cited the case of one individual who expressed his irritation with transfer fees that he felt should be free of charge. Copyright law analogy provides the basis for his assertion. His claim is that patient chart notes are paid by the patient through taxation and as such did not belong to the physician. The physician writing the notes does so for the patient who subsequently owns the record.

Originally published in The Ottawa Citizen August 21, 2002
Original Title: Who Wants to Save a Million Dollars?
Despite the problems in our health-care system, there are some roses worth our attention. One such rose is the Riverside Acute Care Medical Centre. Unfortunately, if the Ottawa Hospital administration has its way, the rose will whither at [...]

Originally published in The Ottawa Citizen July 9, 2002
Original Title: Who Wants to be a Millionaire
How much are doctors paid? It varies depending on the medical specialty. Certainly some specialties provide a greater income for its practitioners but on average most physicians are not pulling in the big bucks as perceived by the public. [...]

Originally published in The Ottawa Citizen April 30, 2002
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more! – Eric Idle – Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Recent reports in the National Post and Ottawa Citizen about Health Canada’s failure to disclose to Canadians in the mid 90’s the lead risk in Turkish raisins is another example of [...]

Originally published in The Ottawa Citizen March 12, 2002
Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan mused recently about the obesity epidemic as if this was some new revelation.

In Ontario there are two drug programs designed to reduce the burden of medication costs: The Ontario Drug Benefit Program (ODB) and the Trillium Drug Program (TDP). The ODB covers the cost of medications for seniors, welfare recipients and the disabled. The TDP, a co-payment plan varies with an individual’s or family’s income.

Our child protection laws are designed to protect the defenseless. Those that are responsible for enforcing these laws have a difficult job to do. This is made even moreso by a flawed complaints process.