By Andrew Thomson, Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
With acute-care beds being filled at area hospitals with chronically ill seniors, the time for a serious public discussion on the collision of rising medical costs and the "death with dignity" debate is now, says the man charged with co-ordinating health care in Eastern Ontario.
It's the ethical responsibility of doctors to encourage discussion regardless of the painful moral, ethical, and political questions that arise, said Dr. Robert Cushman, CEO of the Champlain Local Health Integration Network, who added that the demand for such health care is likely to rise.
"Do I have personal opinions on this? Yes I do," he told the Citizen editorial board this week during a wide-ranging, candid meeting.
"But my professional and my public opinion is that we need to have this healthy debate."
Legislatures and courts across North America and Europe have long grappled with the right to die.
For Dr. Cushman, it's a matter of money and higher levels of respect and care for seniors. The strain on acute care resources has to be addressed as Canada's population ages and pressure mounts on health services, said the former medical officer of health for the City of Ottawa.
Dr. Cushman described a number of 80- or 90-year-olds on ventilators being sent to intensive care units, some of whom have Do Not Resuscitate orders lost in the system. His own 87-year-old mother "would not be happy" with such a scenario, he said.
"It's bad enough with our parents' (generation) but when we get these it's going to really burst the bubble," he said of himself and fellow baby boomers.
Health care administrators now face a zero-sum ethical game where dollars are used for chronic patients in "high-end" acute-care facilities instead of community programs and home care, Dr. Cushman argued, reminding his interviewers that bottom lines aren't his only motivation for seeking public dialogue.
"What kind of heroics can you do in the last six months or two or three years of a life?" he asked. "For someone who's over the age of 80, a hospital is a pretty scary place, and a pretty dangerous place.
"We're talking about the frail elderly. And we have too much of an emphasis on the cure when the returns for the cure can be very low. I think we need to respect seniors' independence and their dignity."
Dr. Cushman, who oversees health care funding and delivery for more than a million residents between Cornwall and Algonquin Park, hopes the growing popularity of living wills is one solution.
He also wants to stop seniors from bouncing around the health care system like a "ping-pong ball." That includes improving "ordinary" procedures such as basic nursing care, home support, and meal delivery.
For more on this story go here
Monday, November 12, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR) in Canada
| |
| The hospital standardized mortality ratio (HSMR) is an important new measure of patient safety that compares a hospital's mortality rate with the average Canadian rate. It examines observed versus expected deaths and is adjusted for various factors such as the age, sex, diagnoses and admission status of patients. The ratio provides a starting point to assess mortality rates and identify areas for improvement, which may help to reduce preventable deaths. |
| Developed in the United Kingdom in the mid 1990s, the HSMR has also been used in hospitals in Holland and the United States. When tracked over time, the ratio can be a motivator for change, by indicating how successful hospitals or health regions have been in reducing inpatient deaths - leading to improved patient care. CIHI has led the effort in calculating HSMRs for Canada and later in 2007, will be releasing its first public report on results for facilities in all provinces outside Quebec. To learn more about the HSMR, see the documents below:
To learn more about the public release:
Source: http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=hsmr_e |
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Canada in a Flat World: A Health & Science Superpower
The following article written by Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), ran in the May 23, 2007 edition of the Globe and Mail. It is an abbreviated version of an address Dr. Bernstein gave to the Canadian Club of Toronto on March 26, 2007
The rise of India and China as economic powerhouses, the development of new global communication technologies, global warming, the emergence of new infectious pathogens like SARS, powerful new insights into the workings of the human body, are all creating tremendous challenges and opportunities for countries like Canada. In a flat world, no country is immune from these global tectonic shifts.
We are in a race without a finish line
The 20th century has been characterized by remarkable improvements in human health, virtually everywhere, except sub-Saharan Africa. Longevity in the West has increased by almost two years per decade for the past sixteen decades. New drugs and diagnostic technologies, fuelled by profound advances in the biological sciences, are increasingly based on a detailed molecular understanding of human biology and disease. We are reaching the stage where we can prevent or slow down the onset of some diseases before clinical symptoms are even apparent.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) will also play a key role. As our population ages, and as we move increasingly from the acute diseases to the chronic conditions of aging (dementias, diabetes, arthritis, frailty), ICTs will link together our homes, our bodies, our clinics and our hospitals. Regenerative medicine, including nanotechnology, bioengineering and perhaps stem cells, will transform how we repair or replace defective or worn out body parts.
But, most profoundly, it will be the synergy that will come from combining this new science and new technology and a heightened sensitivity of our personal responsibility for our own bodies, that will transform human health and our health system.
This profound transformation of health care into a knowledge-based activity has huge economic implications. In our country, health care is a $140 billion industry. In the U.S., that number is $2 trillion. China currently spends $60 per person per year on health care. For Canada, that number is $4,600. So, as China's spending on health care goes from $60 to $600 million over the next decade, the health care industry in China will become a $800 billion industry.
Despite all our concerns about our own health system, Canada has arguably one of the best and well run health systems in the world. That know-how, that knowledge is as exportable and profitable as lumber or oil. Health care is Canada's largest knowledge industry, an industry that will experience phenomenal growth and export opportunities over the next twenty-five years. It is an example of the importance of knowledge and knowledge industries to Canada's future. And, it is a model for how we should structure our thinking about Science and Technology (S&T).
To start, we need to rethink our view of productivity and competitiveness. Productivity today is not about lowering the unit costs of manufacturing picture-tube TVs. Productivity today is about inventing flat screen technologies. Productivity today is not about lowering the unit production costs of bovine insulin. Productivity today is about invention of recombinant DNA technology to produce human insulin in bacteria.
Productivity today is not about improving the efficiency of our health system through training fewer doctors and nurses. Productivity today is about the invention and system-wide application of new ideas and new technologies that will speed up and improve health delivery.
The process of discovery is itself transforming the nature of competition. In a resource-based economy, scarcity drives up price. But in a knowledge economy, it is just the opposite. Software's value goes up the more it is shared. The first fax machine or phone was useless.
And there seems to be no end to new knowledge. Knowledge is not like oil or a piece of capital equipment. Knowledge is not used up, worn out or consumed. Quite the opposite - knowledge and new ideas are different: the more you use them, the more valuable they become.
The centrality of S&T to Canada's future raises other issues such as the need for partnerships and collaborations. In a knowledge economy, knowledge is the most precious commodity. Often, the ideas or intellectual property generated in one company or one university acquires value only when combined with the ideas from another company or university.
Companies, universities and countries must therefore strike strategic and dynamic collaborations in an attempt to create the synergies and complementarities that can only come by merging ideas, creating partnerships and building relationships.
Canada is well positioned to take leadership in this area. Science diplomacy, particularly health science diplomacy, will be a powerful way for Canada to reach out to the world. We place importance on good health and a public health system. I believe that those values, coupled with Canada's exceptionally strong health research enterprise and the universal nature of science that transcends language and culture, will make health science diplomacy as important a diplomatic tool in this century as Pearsonian diplomacy was for Canada in the last century.
For our cities to become a knowledge-based hub, proximity to market is no longer the issue. But, proximity to the world's best universities and to the best research talent is.
We are witnessing the 'death of distance'
The last point is obvious. A successful knowledge economy is built on a highly educated workforce and a society that understands what research is all about and engaged in the issues raised by science. Science is, quite simply, the best way humanity has come up with to solve important problems. Indeed, some of the greatest opportunities for economic progress will come from helping the world solve its biggest problems - in human health, in energy, the environment, in building sustainable cites. This is how, I believe, we will generate the new jobs, wealth for our country, and well-being for our citizens.
This is what science and innovation is all about - discovering and applying new scientific ideas, new knowledge to change the world.
Real, cutting-edge research is tough to do
But transforming science into new products and new policies is even tougher - it is a complex process that involves iterative interactions between the producers and users of new knowledge.
Canada is in a race without a finish line. It's a race to build a nation that provides rewarding careers for our children, that has a sustainable health system, a strong education system, and that is a paradigm for the planet. We're in a race to generate new ideas and to transform those ideas into economic advantage.
I believe Canada can win that race. But how on earth do you win a race without a finish line? First, you have to enter the race. And second, you have to enter it to win.
The rise of India and China as economic powerhouses, the development of new global communication technologies, global warming, the emergence of new infectious pathogens like SARS, powerful new insights into the workings of the human body, are all creating tremendous challenges and opportunities for countries like Canada. In a flat world, no country is immune from these global tectonic shifts.
We are in a race without a finish line
The 20th century has been characterized by remarkable improvements in human health, virtually everywhere, except sub-Saharan Africa. Longevity in the West has increased by almost two years per decade for the past sixteen decades. New drugs and diagnostic technologies, fuelled by profound advances in the biological sciences, are increasingly based on a detailed molecular understanding of human biology and disease. We are reaching the stage where we can prevent or slow down the onset of some diseases before clinical symptoms are even apparent.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) will also play a key role. As our population ages, and as we move increasingly from the acute diseases to the chronic conditions of aging (dementias, diabetes, arthritis, frailty), ICTs will link together our homes, our bodies, our clinics and our hospitals. Regenerative medicine, including nanotechnology, bioengineering and perhaps stem cells, will transform how we repair or replace defective or worn out body parts.
But, most profoundly, it will be the synergy that will come from combining this new science and new technology and a heightened sensitivity of our personal responsibility for our own bodies, that will transform human health and our health system.
This profound transformation of health care into a knowledge-based activity has huge economic implications. In our country, health care is a $140 billion industry. In the U.S., that number is $2 trillion. China currently spends $60 per person per year on health care. For Canada, that number is $4,600. So, as China's spending on health care goes from $60 to $600 million over the next decade, the health care industry in China will become a $800 billion industry.
Despite all our concerns about our own health system, Canada has arguably one of the best and well run health systems in the world. That know-how, that knowledge is as exportable and profitable as lumber or oil. Health care is Canada's largest knowledge industry, an industry that will experience phenomenal growth and export opportunities over the next twenty-five years. It is an example of the importance of knowledge and knowledge industries to Canada's future. And, it is a model for how we should structure our thinking about Science and Technology (S&T).
To start, we need to rethink our view of productivity and competitiveness. Productivity today is not about lowering the unit costs of manufacturing picture-tube TVs. Productivity today is about inventing flat screen technologies. Productivity today is not about lowering the unit production costs of bovine insulin. Productivity today is about invention of recombinant DNA technology to produce human insulin in bacteria.
Productivity today is not about improving the efficiency of our health system through training fewer doctors and nurses. Productivity today is about the invention and system-wide application of new ideas and new technologies that will speed up and improve health delivery.
The process of discovery is itself transforming the nature of competition. In a resource-based economy, scarcity drives up price. But in a knowledge economy, it is just the opposite. Software's value goes up the more it is shared. The first fax machine or phone was useless.
And there seems to be no end to new knowledge. Knowledge is not like oil or a piece of capital equipment. Knowledge is not used up, worn out or consumed. Quite the opposite - knowledge and new ideas are different: the more you use them, the more valuable they become.
The centrality of S&T to Canada's future raises other issues such as the need for partnerships and collaborations. In a knowledge economy, knowledge is the most precious commodity. Often, the ideas or intellectual property generated in one company or one university acquires value only when combined with the ideas from another company or university.
Companies, universities and countries must therefore strike strategic and dynamic collaborations in an attempt to create the synergies and complementarities that can only come by merging ideas, creating partnerships and building relationships.
Canada is well positioned to take leadership in this area. Science diplomacy, particularly health science diplomacy, will be a powerful way for Canada to reach out to the world. We place importance on good health and a public health system. I believe that those values, coupled with Canada's exceptionally strong health research enterprise and the universal nature of science that transcends language and culture, will make health science diplomacy as important a diplomatic tool in this century as Pearsonian diplomacy was for Canada in the last century.
For our cities to become a knowledge-based hub, proximity to market is no longer the issue. But, proximity to the world's best universities and to the best research talent is.
We are witnessing the 'death of distance'
The last point is obvious. A successful knowledge economy is built on a highly educated workforce and a society that understands what research is all about and engaged in the issues raised by science. Science is, quite simply, the best way humanity has come up with to solve important problems. Indeed, some of the greatest opportunities for economic progress will come from helping the world solve its biggest problems - in human health, in energy, the environment, in building sustainable cites. This is how, I believe, we will generate the new jobs, wealth for our country, and well-being for our citizens.
This is what science and innovation is all about - discovering and applying new scientific ideas, new knowledge to change the world.
Real, cutting-edge research is tough to do
But transforming science into new products and new policies is even tougher - it is a complex process that involves iterative interactions between the producers and users of new knowledge.
Canada is in a race without a finish line. It's a race to build a nation that provides rewarding careers for our children, that has a sustainable health system, a strong education system, and that is a paradigm for the planet. We're in a race to generate new ideas and to transform those ideas into economic advantage.
I believe Canada can win that race. But how on earth do you win a race without a finish line? First, you have to enter the race. And second, you have to enter it to win.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Breakfast with the Chiefs :: Longwoods Publishing
We have added a new location to our Breakfast with the Chiefs :: Longwoods Publishing series. This year BWTC is going to Montreal.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Uh-oh, Canada
Uh-oh, Canada
By Bill Steigerwald
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, August 26, 2007
If Canada's national health-care system is so dang wonderful, why are so many Canadians coming to America to pay for their own medical care?
Why is the hip replacement center of Canada in Ohio -- at the Cleveland Clinic, where 10 percent of its international patients are Canadians?
Why is the Brain and Spine Clinic in Buffalo serving about 10 border-crossing Canadians a week? Why did a Calgary woman recently have to drive several hundred miles to Great Falls, Mont., to give birth to her quadruplets?
It's simple. As the market-oriented Fraser Institute in Vancouver, B.C., can tell you, Canada's vaunted "free" government health-care system cannot or deliberately will not provide its 33 million citizens with the nonemergency health care they want and need when they need or want it.
Courtesy of the institute, here are some unflattering facts about Canada's sickly system: story continues here:
By Bill Steigerwald
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, August 26, 2007
If Canada's national health-care system is so dang wonderful, why are so many Canadians coming to America to pay for their own medical care?
Why is the hip replacement center of Canada in Ohio -- at the Cleveland Clinic, where 10 percent of its international patients are Canadians?
Why is the Brain and Spine Clinic in Buffalo serving about 10 border-crossing Canadians a week? Why did a Calgary woman recently have to drive several hundred miles to Great Falls, Mont., to give birth to her quadruplets?
It's simple. As the market-oriented Fraser Institute in Vancouver, B.C., can tell you, Canada's vaunted "free" government health-care system cannot or deliberately will not provide its 33 million citizens with the nonemergency health care they want and need when they need or want it.
Courtesy of the institute, here are some unflattering facts about Canada's sickly system: story continues here:
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Of Course Nurses Know What's Right: A Focus on Front Line Nursing
15 papers providing intelligence, policies and practices. Assembled
Broadening the Patient Safety Agenda to Include Home Care Services
A coordinated and collaborative approach to generate new knowledge pertaining to safety in home care in Canada has been undertaken by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), VON Canada, and Capital Health (Edmonton).
Building the Canadian Paediatric Trigger Tool
Research on adverse events (AEs) has highlighted the need to improve patient safety.
Can we afford to sustain Medicare? A strong role for federal government
This report urges provincial and territorial premiers to call for federal "uploading" of provincial drug programs. CFNU President Linda Silas says that if Pharmacare is embraced by premiers, it could grant relief to the provinces and provide genuine benefits for all Canadians.
Creating Positive Solutions at the Workplace: Time to Work Together
Creating Positive Solutions at the Workplace: Time to Work Together, was presented by Linda Silas, at the March 22-23 international conference A Call to Action: Ensuring Global Resources for Health. The paper highlights examples of positive initiatives that will make a difference to nurses bringing research to action.
Enhancement of Patient Safety through Formal Nurse-Patient Ratios: A Discussion Paper
A strong body of evidence exists to suggest that by achieving optimal nurse staffing levels that closely match the acuity level of patients, the quality of care is improved. Furthermore,achieving optimal nurse staffing levels also enhances the quality of worklife for nurses. The study shows that Nurse-Patient Ratios could provide a useful roadmap, pointing the way for legislators to put enough nurses where they are needed, when they are needed.
Getting Better Health Care: Lessons from (and for) Canada
Economist Armine Yalnizyan's 2006 book, with translated Executive Summary, reviews the evolution of
Getting Healthy Work Environments in Health Workplaces discusses how unhealthy work environments result in unhealthy workers and reduced health outcomes for patients. This commentary focuses on getting real change in the workplace, changes that workers and patients will talk about.
Nursing sector recommends strategies for addressing nursing HR issues
The Nursing Sector Study's Phase II Final Report outlines all of the pan-Canadian opportunities for collaboration identified by stakeholders. It also provides linkages to other health human resources projects underway in
Our Health, Our Future: Creating Quality Workplaces for Canadian Nurses
The final report of the Canadian Nursing Advisory Committee, released in 2002, makes 51 recommendations to improve the retention and worklife of Canadian nurses. Linda Silas was a member of the author committee.
Report: Taking Steps Forward: Retaining and valuing Experienced Nurses January 26, 2006
This report, informed by a 2005 survey of nurses reminds policy makers and managers that keeping experienced nurses in the workforce is essential to addressing
Research Report: More for Less: A National Pharmacare Strategy
This report, prepared by the Canadian Health Coalition, makes a compelling case for why Canadians need a public national drug plan.
The Pulse of Renewal: A Focus on Nursing Human Resources
The Pulse of Renewal: A Focus on Nursing Human Resources is a report of work commissioned by Health
Under Pressure: Implications of Work-Life Balance and Job Stress
This report presents new findings from two national surveys, one of employers and the other of workers, on work-life balance and job stress. The report discusses the implications of these issues for employers and points to actions they can take to...
Control Over Time and Work-Life Balance
This report was prepared for the Federal Labour Standards Review Committee. It examines the research and relevant Canadian empirical evidence on work schedules, work time and work-life balance. It assesses trends and current practices in
It's a matter of trust
This article discusses the key to building a trust-based corporate culture.
Salaries and Other Compensation for Healthcare Workers in Canada
FROM CANADA'S ACADEMIC HEALTH SCIENCES CENTRES . . . AND MORE
- BC Health Sector Summary Financial Statements, 2007 Download PDF
- Vancouver Island H.A. Staff Remuneration, 2006 Download PDF
- VCH 2005-2006 Health Services Redesign Download PDF
- Vancouver Coastal Health Employee Remuneration, 2006 Download PDF
- Fraser Health Employee Remuneration, 2006 Download PDF
- Provincial Health Services BC Employee Salaries, 2007 Download PDF
- Capital Health Edmonton Annual Report, 2006 Download PDF
- Capital Health Edmonton Review, 2006 Download PDF
- Capital Health Edmonton - 3-Year Health Plan 2006-2009 Download PDF
- Calgary Health Chief Top Paid Among Western Peers, 2006 Download PDF
- Calgary Health Region CEO compensation details Download PDF
- Ontario Ministry Salaries 06 Download PDF
- Ontario Hospital Salaries 06 Download PDF
- Capital Health Nova Scotia, Titles & Salaries, 2007 Download PDF
- Statistics Canada. Wages. Salaries. Other earnings. Download PDF
Monday, July 30, 2007
Canadian Medicare: through the eyes of Peter Gzowski
Canadian Medicare: through the eyes of Peter Gzowski
Health Care 1: Diagnosis
I am sitting on a hard chair in the X-ray wing of a very good—I am to learn—hospital. I have two gowns on: one that opens from the back, one from the front. The combination protects my modesty, I suppose, but I still feel vulnerable. They can get at me either way and stick things in me where I don’t want them to. The gowns don’t match; one is pale blue, the other green. I can’t figure out how to tie them. My scrawny legs jut out from under their hems. My knees show. My feet are encased in floppy cotton slippers, which tie at the ankle, like mukluks, except I can’t figure out how to do them up, either. My dignity is back in the changing cubicle, along with my trousers. The receptionist, young enough to date one of my sons, calls me Peter, as if I have no last name. A technician passes by without looking at me. She is in a peach pantsuit made, like my gown ensemble, of cotton. She looks sharp. Why can’t I have something like that?
I’m tense and, to tell you the truth, a bit scared. I’m sure at least one of my charts will reflect what doctors call “white coat syndrome”—blood pressure that rises because someone’s taking your blood pressure. Except as a visitor, hospitals—health-care facilities of any kind—are foreign turf for me. Not that I’ve looked after myself all these years. More, in fact, that I haven’t. And now I’m getting the works. “Chest X-ray,” the doctor said last week when, at last, I’d actually gone for a visit. “Blood tests, CAT scan, ultrasound, something-oscopy, barium ene—”
“Barium?” I said. “Don’t they—?”
“We’ll make the arrangements,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
Yeah, don’t worry. He isn’t sitting in borrowed jammies, in a world where strangers who call you by your first name stick things into places on your body even you haven’t seen.
Emmett Hall died recently, in a nursing home in
The technician in peach returns. “Peter…?” she says, glancing at her clipboard. I have the impression she would try my last name, but the extra consonants dissuade her. An occupational hazard where she works, I guess. I realize, too, that my revery on Mr. Justice Hall has lasted perhaps five minutes at the most; I have scarcely been waiting at all. “Come with me,” the technician says, and leads me down the hall.
It’s not nearly as bad as I’d feared. I have been, as a doctor I know puts it, “hanging crêpe”—imagining the worst. When I actually get in to the darkness of the ultrasound room, my fears turn out to be unfounded. People are nice to me. They work quickly. They explain what they’re doing. They warm the gel before spreading it on my tummy. They make me feel…not at home, but as if I’m being looked after, cared for. Even the barium ene…well, let’s not talk about the barium, okay? The point is I’m in good hands.*
There’s a lot of pressure on those hands these days. Everywhere, governments are wondering how much of this we can afford. But the politicians haven’t been sitting in their jammies, either, thinking of Mr. Justice Emmett Hall.
I worried about a lot of things when I was in the hospital—maybe some of them too much. But one of them wasn’t money. I like it that way, don’t you?
* As you’ll see in the piece that follows, those hands and their instruments, as it turned out, almost certainly saved my life.
Taken from Peter Gzowski’s book: Friends, Moments, Countryside. Selected columns from Canadian Living, 1993 -98. Here is a review and a place to order. http://januarymagazine.com/nonfiction/gzowski.html. Great summer reading!
Methadone maintenance. Reforming practices in Ontario
The Government of Ontario has responded to task force report recommendations recommending reform to methadone maintenance practices in the province.
The full report can be found at:
http://www.methadonetaskforce.com
Here are the links to two Toronto Star articles:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/239983
The full report can be found at:
http://www.methadonetaskforce.com
Here are the links to two Toronto Star articles:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/239983
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/240446
Here is the governments response:
July 26, 2007: McGuinty Government Increasing Access to Methadone Treatment: Investing $2 Million To Improve Treatment For People With Opioid Addictions
TORONTO- The McGuinty government is increasing access to methadone maintenance treatment for people with opioid addictions by investing an additional $2 million in treatment initiatives across
“Our government is committed to providing better treatment for people who are addicted to heroin and other opioids,” said Smitherman. “This new funding will allow for continuous improvement of professional services and increase awareness in communities about the value of methadone maintenance treatment.”
The $2 million announced today will be allocated to improve methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in
$1 million to recruit more doctors to prescribe methadone and other treatments, expand training and professional supports at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and develop best practice guidelines for nurses, counsellors and pharmacists
$200,000 to the
$500,000 to increase public awareness regarding the benefits of MMT and issues related to opioid dependence.
$300,000 to develop a resource guide to assist in the proper introduction of MMT into local communities including the funding of local “Citizen Engagement Committees”
This brings the province’s annual total funding for MMT initiatives to $4.3 million.
After having consulted with experts in the field, the government intends to finalize changes to the OHIP fee codes that govern payment for testing performed in physician's offices related to methadone maintenance programs. This move will provide greater accountability and help to eliminate unnecessary testing and is expected to save approximately $3 million per year.
In April 2006, the government created the Methadone Maintenance Treatment Practices Task Force to provide advice on access to methadone, best practices and training, payment models, quality assurance and assessment, and community engagement. As part of today’s announcement the government also released the Report of the Methadone Maintenance Treatment Practices Task Force which outlines 26 recommendations directed at all key stakeholders involved in methadone maintenance treatment in the province.
“We want to thank the task force members for their hard work, analysis and dedication in participating in the Task Force and for lending their collective expertise to this important matter,” said Smitherman. “The government is working with stakeholders to implement several of the recommendations.”
“We are pleased the government is taking action on the recommendations of the Task Force report by increasing access to methadone treatment for people with opioid addictions,” said Anton Hart, Chair of the Methadone Maintenance Treatment Practices Task Force.
It is estimated that the social, economic and health care costs of untreated opioid addictions exceeds $1 billion including lost productivity and premature mortality along with costs associated with law enforcement and the use of the criminal justice system.
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