Course talk:DHYG404/groupone2009

Hi Carrie, Zahra & Martha

I think that Martha's initial thoughts are a really good way to proceed. How about we break up the workload as follows: Martha & I work on the NOW strategies and Carrie & Zahra work on the FUTURE strategies. Maybe Martha could do the intro for our submission by just re-working what you already wrote, which I think is really good. Will this work? I'm feeling a bit lost on the wiki page idea so far, but I think I'm just in a discussion part and we do our work on the "user page" part.....? I'll work on some thoughts for the NOW strategies by going back over the Romanow report and pulling out strategies and rationale. Thanks Nicole

Retrieved from "http://wiki.ubc.ca/User_talk:NicoleFisher"

Hi Carrie, Martha and Nicole. I will add my thoughts to the FUTURE section later this evening. Looks good so far!

Zahra

What are the key strategies that we need to incorporate / implement to align our health care system with the needs and values of Canadians?

Carrie's thoughts:

I basically agree will all that has been said but I fear that dividing up the Now and the Future stuff into two sections may be somewhat repetitive as some of the ideas overlap. I like Martha's idea but we have to be aware of the 400 wd maximum.

One important area that has not been addressed is the threat of globalization on our Health Care System and our values. See below (Romanow, 2002):

RECOMMENDATION 44: Federal and provincial governments should prevent potential challenges to Canada’s health care system by: • Ensuring that any future reforms they implement are protected under the definition of “public services” included in international law or trade agreements to which Canada is party; • Reinforcing Canada’s position that the right to regulate health care policy should not be subject to claims for compensation from foreign-based companies. RECOMMENDATION 45: The federal government should build alliances with other countries, especially with members of the World Trade Organization, to ensure that future international trade agreements, agreements on intellectual property, and labour standards make explicit allowance for both maintaining and expanding publicly insured, financed and delivered health care. 253

I might summarize as follows: Globalization may threaten our Health Care system through the "brain drain" phenomenon as other nations compete for health professionals and through challenge to international trade agreement by foreign health service enterprise. We must be reasonable in our practice of recruitment and licensure of foreign health professionals; build alliances with other nations to ensure "health" is established as a foreign policy goal; and be cautious in health policy changes that allow for further privatization. Further privatization would open the doors to foreign competition under current trade agreements, undermine the positive economics associated with the provision of health care in Canada (money spent in Canada stays in Canada), and potentially undermine our social policy priorities.

I would also add a little to the electronic health record bit: EHR allows for evidence-based decision-making, transparency, helps to set priorities for health; privacy also becomes a big issue. (as an aside: the thought of a foreign country providing health care and having access to my EHR is scary to me especially in light of all of the identity theft. It is scary enough just having a national EHR)