Pandemic Silver Linings - Our Health Care System is in Need of them

That 4 character alpha-numeric acronym from last year that was in the news every single day, especially when a second wave of flu, and the vaccine became available, brought a silver lining. It is not a surprise silver perk, but handwashing and virus containment efforts and awareness needed to be increased just to decrease regular flu and disease anyway. It will be interesting to see if there will be a marked difference in hospitals and clinic visits over the next year or two because there had been less spread of disease.

Right now, there is still a great deal of stress on health care workers to keep up with the demand of sick people. Those seriously ill need the most attention, but there are inefficiencies in organization and communication in sectors of health care like cancer treatment, and that ultimately is at the detriment of patients, but also doctors and caregivers.

The H1N1 pandemic and vaccination process was a nuisance to live amidst. However, everywhere you go these days, there are hand sanitizers, soaps, sanitized towelettes, and hand washing notices. People ask for it if it isn't there. The gym I go to has a number of those sanitizers on their walls. Gyms have been good incubators for germs, with so many hands using the same equipment continually. Sanitation workers at least in gyms, are wiping the handles, and equipment that people touch, and not just cleaning windows and surfaces that don't pose the bigger risk. Users are expected to do wipe down equipment as well, not just with a water spray bottle but with sanitized paper. So we as a society may have moved forward an extra step in taking measures to reduce illness. Hopefully those habits and education will continue.

Many problems are preventable, and some, despite your best lifestyle habits, just happen. Serious diseases happen and require the special skills of those trained to treat them. The more we as a society can reduce the demand on hospital staff and resources, the happier everyone will be. The more stress and demands we make on our doctors and health workers, then maybe those out of province offers just start to look a bit more enticing.

One lesson from many to be learned from the H1N1 experience, is that we can reduce and have a big impact on the spread of disease, and the demand it places on our health care system. Back in Sept. I posted a write-up on how we can can prepare for H1N1, and included a description of how hard it could hit hospitals, taking the Winnipeg experience as an example. If preventative measures were promoted more for positive lifestyle changes, we could make ourselves healthier, and hence, and hopefully bring more silver linings to help make our health care system work best for all concerned.

Ontario's Big Mac Tax Axe

Ontario will be exempting fast food under $4.00 from 8% of it's 13% HST coming up next July.

The exemptions announced Thursday on food or beverages heated for consumption, salads, sandwiches; platters of cheese, cold cuts, fruit and vegetables will cost the province $325 million in revenue, Duncan said, but the plan will more than pay for itself in jobs created and by expanding the tax base overall.

There are a couple of quirky things about this, from two angles. First of all, health care needs less strain on it, rather than having more obesity, heart, stroke and other problems associated with over consumption of garbage food, that cheaper junk may assist in doing. Second, a customer might buy individual products like fries, or a drink, or a burger, separately for under $4.00 but if they buy a combo, then it goes over $4.00, and then all the same products now become taxed.

Food and beverages heated for consumption will presumably cover many junk foods burgers, fries, hot dogs, spam-type meat sandwiches, etc., so is that a step forward for society? Or, healthcare, which is a huge piece of a provincial budget? Making it easier to have future health problems seems to be part of Ontario's HST plan. Perhaps the 591,000 net new jobs over 10 years will include many more health professionals to help deal with a combo of health problems trash food contributes to.

Health is Everyone's Foundation

Premier Danny Williams has made a decent offer to Pathologists that puts them on salary par with those in other parts of Canada. Thankfully, oil money allows for more compensation for these critical people and will be an incentive for current Drs. to stay, and to entice others here.

There is still much healing left to take place in hospital ERs, and with nursing staff shortages. While the salary incentive is being dealt with we are reminded to look at our own society as a whole.

We all are responsible for how we live, and to a great extent, many health ailments. Disease beyond our control happens, old age, and deterioration happens. What can also happen is less strain being put on health care because of individual choices on lifestyle. The better we take care of ourselves, the greater the chance of good health, less hospital visits, and less stress on health workers. It's common sense but personal habits are a factor in the current health crisis. Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest nurse per capita ratio in Canada, yet they are extremely stressed, overworked, and still understaffed. It's the demand the general public makes of health care. However, this situation like many, does not have to remain the same. The better we eat, the more active, and the more educated about food and environmental toxins we become, the greater the chances of better health inside and outside of hospitals for all concerned.

Our Health, and Future Health Care

Our health care system healthiness is to a degree approached from a number of angles - government, community groups, fundraisers, individuals, health ads, and in schools. That degree is going to have to increase if we want to sustain and improve health care in this province.

Right now there's not nearly enough nutrition education being communicated to youth and adults. The idea that society needs the best nutrition and health information should be the foundation for people to make the best choices in food and lifestyle.

The Cameron Inquiry into the botched hormone receptor testing is starting to highlight some of the problem areas in our health care system - investment in staff training and reliable equipment. This is everyone's concern, and as baby boomers age, there will be more challenges to an already burdened health system. Challenging yes, and it can improve. Here are some ideas to consider for improving future health care and personal health.

Disseminating more health information via schools, hospitals, public service announcements.

Enforcing policies for the food industry to make nutrition guides more readily available. Last year Marketplace covered this very topic and found that it was difficult to get nutrition information at many restaurants. People were shocked to see how high calorie and sodium levels were in many of the food items.

Industrial companies which have negligent safety practices should be inspected to ensure they strictly adhere to safety guidelines; to make work environments more conducive to employees to wear proper safety apparel like masks where there are toxic fumes, or materials like asbestos. There are companies here in St. John's and probably everywhere else where employee safety is secondary. When many cancers alone are caused by environmental factors, more stringent safety regulations needs enforcing.

Whether it's started in elementary school, or in public service announcements, there needs to be more of an emphasis on taking more personal responsibility for one's health, i.e., seeking out nutrition information, healthier habits, hence, staying away from hospitals and doctors to a greater degree, and therefore, taking some stress away from health workers. Bad habits don't easily change overnight but self-inflicted good health is a goal worthy of a reminder anytime!

It's often said that religion should be kept out of politics. How about keeping business out of real health discussions. Their interests are in profit not some altruistic hope for individual's well being. The closest they come to that is in advertising - their concern is how well it works to make it appear that food products are beneficial to your health.

Much more can be done by the food industry to help. As we have seen, the food industry is in the pocket of influential agencies like Canada's Food Guide, and programs like the Health Check Symbol. They sit on boards that define criteria for determining what is healthy. It's been said here previously that the Heart and Stroke Foundation actually promotes food products that contribute to heart attacks and strokes.

Ban junk food advertising to children under 13. In fact, that is currently being considered in Ontario, after a private member's bill was introduced April 8.

With a few words you can put a positive tone on anything. It's easy, especially when you're talking about the Ooey-gooey and chewy FanTaste-ic Goodness of the Chocolate Chippers, and other "fun" foods. There are people who like to sarcastically joke about the "corporate bogeyman". Well, there are thousands of reasons to be weary of insidious advertisers.

Completely wipe out the use of trans fats. Again, the bottom line of industry is to make profit, which includes cutting expenses, and making a product as cheaply as possible. That's a big reason for using trans fat. It kills people, but it's a cheap way to preserve products for a longer shelf life.

Here's a nice example. The innocence of young girls is used to sell Girl Guide cookies. Who can resist! Unfortunately, 3 of these innocent cookies are laced with 1.5 grams of trans fat. It could have been removed but isn't. And why not? Voortman's can remove all trans fat from their cookies, so ..?

One more suggestion: Hospitals ought to set a better example for healthy eating by not allowing cafeterias to serve stuff like poutine, or allowing junk food giants like Tim Horton's set up in cafeterias.

Many patients are in the hospital because they have had heart attacks, strokes and other coronary problems. Often, they are advised to stay away from salt, not to mention foods high in sugar. Check out the Tim Horton's nutrition guide here. Notice that their sandwiches are very high in sodium. Three (the Turkey Bacon Club, the Deli Trio, and the beloved Ham & Swiss) have sodium levels that are above the daily recommended limit of 1500 mg per day - and that's just one food item, not including the "meal deals" which include donut and beverage.

The St. John's Health Sciences Centre has a Tim Hortons. After hours it's the only place to eat. The irony is obvious, a hospital with a "fun food" vender, and the cycle continues.

A general health care Telethon. The Janeway Telethons have been very successful, and we have a brand new hospital for kids. However, one suggestion is to have a telethon this year and/or the next, for the ER, or for the elderly care, for example.

These are one observer's assessment of current health care and where it needs to go in the future. At the very least more discussion and analysis of societal health practices is a place to begin nursing our overall health and health care system to a better level.

With Barrels of Extra Oil Revenues We Should be Pumping More Into Nurses

It's Christmas, and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will pump $100's of millions into the economy to keep the business community afloat. We don't have enough nurses, but there's lots of money floating around everywhere. This year, Newfoundland & Labrador hit the jackpot with crude revenues helping to more than triple the projected provincial surplus of $261 million. On Dec. 10, Finance Minister Tom Marshall announced that the projected surplus was $881 million. Yet, our health system, and people are suffering because of a continued shortage of nurses.

The latest nurse news is from St. Lawrence. There is a nursing shortage there. In fact on the Burin Peninsula, there are actually 95 nursing positions "to boot", and 20 are still unfilled. The problems are workload, money and job security.

Nurses in Newfoundland and Labrador currently earn between $45,000 and $82,000 a year.

The nurses union says those are the lowest wages in the country, $8 an hour less than nurses in Ontario. - Debbie Forward, President, nurses union

Though measures have been taken by government to encourage new graduates to stay in NL, it does not seem to be enough. Forward also wants the government to commit to jobs for new graduates and to step up recruitment efforts.

This is not a new problem. Here's a similar problem in 1999 when there was a nurses strike:

They want more full time positions created to deal with what most everyone agrees are overworked conditions for nurses. And finally they want more money. Nurses in Newfoundland are the lowest paid in the country. (CBC NL)

There is reason for optimism though. Last month the NL government announced that they will begin negotiations on a new nursing contract months earlier than was originally scheduled.

Earlier this fall an emergency room crisis at the St. John's Health Sciences Centre caused a commotion, which led to more nursing staff hired on there. We could use more nurses, and more incentives to keep them here. With $100's of millions from oil being pumped into the economy, there are barrels of opportunities to pump more into nurses, getting hired and staying here.

Teenage Waist Land: Society's unHealthy Conflicts of Interest

Business, government & society have an unHealthy conflict of interests.

People want better health, safer food, better and Honest nutrition labeling, and better health care. Government wants less health care costs, the tax dollars from the food industries, plus, employed citizens in the food and restaurant industry. Food businesses want your money, every legal way there is to get it, no matter what the consequences to the individual and to the health care system. Government do not want to be seen to be as anti-business by promoting too many public service health announcements that nullify the happy messages from fast food chains - those that tell you to treat your gullet to harmful food pollutants.

A smattering of healthy eating commercials is really lip service, as the population bulges wider and wider. The problem is getting worse as more teens are broadening their horizontals. The teenage obesity rates are through the walls, and very high in Newfoundland and Labrador. The chances of much avoidable health care costs are widening as there becomes a greater risk for teens to get type 2 diabetes, heart and circulatory problems, and various forms of cancers.

Recent serious mistakes in radiology reporting is an area to analyze. What went wrong, where does the problem lie? There are dangerous staff shortages at the emergency room at the HSC. With $billions put into healthcare many doctors are still over worked. With an aging population of over 65ers increasing more each year, the stresses of the healthcare system looks like it will heave and swell.

Sickness and conditions will always be. Some just happen despite an individual's best health efforts. Many other problems chances of happening are increased by peoples' behaviour - in other words, those under our control - smoking, drinking, lifestyle, overeating harmful food, and not getting enough physical activity.

Preventative medicine can take a couple of forms. One may still cost the health system money, the other, none at all.

The first refers to people going for testing before a problem is either diagnosed or apparent at all. For example, heart exams, prostate cancer checks, blood work, blood pressure, mammograms, etc. Some argue that this doesn't save any money. If it does or doesn't, it's been known to do what's most important, save lives. The second preventative measure is where we as individual who are free to control what we do and eat, exercise discretion in what we decide to feed our nutrient-hungry body cells.

Many health problems can be avoided, and there are scattered advertisements which promote healthy eating. There could be much much more. The anti-smoking campaign was/is on fire for years. So if too much fat, trans fat, sodium, sugar, preservatives, plastic container chemicals like bisphenol-A, and additives are negatively affecting health, which all have been reported to be, then shouldn't there be more public warnings about avoiding bad foods?

It could save 100's of thousands of lives and improve peoples' quality of life. Of course, stepping up public service announcements above lip-service level will rile food businesses whose profits are based on the public's no fear attitude about clogging the human circulatory and plumbing system full of sludge.

How many $100s of millions could be saved in the health care system, which, despite Canada being a G7 nation and a multi-billion dollar surplus recipient year after year, still is ailing. Health Canada Should educate the public more on healthy eating and healthier lifestyles. If that negatively affects the sale of burgers, poutines, and curly fries, then so be it. If people avoid more of the garbage and eat more healthy, then the mystery meat kings of food can adjust their menus more.
Here is a helpful link called Teaching Nutrition to Teens.