Health
Opening independent non-profit hospitals would improve access to care and efficiency in Canada’s healthcare system
From the Montreal Economic Institute
Autonomous non-profit hospitals tend to perform better than government-run hospitals, shows a study published this morning by the Montreal Economic Institute.
“Interminable waits in Canadian hospitals show that our healthcare systems are struggling to deliver basic services to the population,” says Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at MEI and author of the study. “By allowing independent non-profit hospitals to open, our governments would help increase treatment capacity, to the benefit of patients.”
In 2023, the median wait time in Quebec ERs was 5 hours and 13 minutes, up 42 minutes from five years earlier.
It is estimated that as a result of chronic overcrowding in Canadian ERs, there are between 8,000 and 15,000 avoidable deaths each year.
The Canadian health care system ranks 10th out of 11 comparable industrialized countries, just ahead of the United States, in the Commonwealth Fund’s ranking of healthcare systems. The French, German, and Dutch systems are 8th, 5th, and 2nd respectively in the same ranking.
While the Canadian system has no independent non-profit hospitals according to the OECD’s definition, such facilities account for 14 per cent of French hospital beds, 28 per cent of German hospital beds, and 100 per cent of Dutch hospital beds.
The researcher attributes a portion of the success of these facilities to their greater managerial autonomy and to a funding method that encourages the treatment of more patients.
“One of the strengths of these hospitals is how quickly they can adapt, contrary to facilities micromanaged by government ministries, as is the case in Canada,” explains Ms. Faubert. “Since their financing depends on the type and the quantity of ailments treated, administrators see the sustainability of their facilities as being directly linked to their capacity to treat patients.”
Although Canadian hospitals generally have their own boards of directors, the management of their daily activities and their funding are subject to strict government control.
Aside from certain limited experiments, notably in Quebec, Canadian hospitals still depend largely on a global budgeting model, in which funding depends entirely on the level of activity in the previous year.
Since the annual budgetary envelope is fixed, each additional patient is seen as a cost, says the researcher.
In Europe, in contrast, hospitals are largely financed according to an activity-based funding model, whereby a hospital receives a set amount of money for each treatment carried out within its walls. With this system, each additional patient treated represents an immediate source of revenue for the facility, says the researcher.
“It’s clear that our healthcare system can and must do better, and that means changing the incentives of those who manage it,” says Ms. Faubert. “By introducing non-profit hospitals, with a better funding model, and by granting health professionals more flexibility, we will be able to provide better care to more patients, as they do in Europe.”
The MEI study is available here.
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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.
Dr John Campbell
Cures for Cancer? A new study shows incredible results from cheap generic drug Fenbendazole
From Dr. John Campbell
You won’t hear much about Fenbendazole from the regular pipeline of medical information. There could be many reasons for that. For one, it’s primarily known for it’s use in veterinary medicine. Somehow during COVID the medical information pipeline convinced millions that if a drug is used on horses or other animals it couldn’t work for humans. Not sure how they got away with that one considering the use of animal trials for much of modern medical history.
Another possible reason, one that makes at least as much sense, is that there’s no business case for Fenbendazole. It’s been around for decades and its patent expired in the early 1990’s. That means it’s considered a generic drug that a pharmaceutical company from India could (and does) produce in mass quantities for very little profit (compared to non-generics).
So Fenbendazole is an inexpensive, widely accessible antiparasitic drug used in veterinary medicine. During the COVID pandemic a number of doctors, desperate for a suitable treatment, tried it with reportedly great levels of success. Over some time they discovered it might be useful elsewhere. Some doctors are using Fenbendazole to help treat late stage cancer. Often this is prescribed when the regular treatments clearly aren’t working and cancer is approaching or has already been declared stage 4.
What they’ve found at least in some cases is astounding results. This has resulted in a new study which medical researcher Dr. John Campbell shares in this video.
Addictions
Canadian gov’t not stopping drug injection sites from being set up near schools, daycares
From LifeSiteNews
Canada’s health department told MPs there is not a minimum distance requirement between safe consumption sites and schools, daycares or playgrounds.
So-called “safe” drug injection sites do not require a minimum distance from schools, daycares, or even playgrounds, Health Canada has stated, and that has puzzled some MPs.
Canadian Health Minister Marjorie Michel recently told MPs that it was not up to the federal government to make rules around where drug use sites could be located.
“Health Canada does not set a minimum distance requirement between safe consumption sites and nearby locations such as schools, daycares or playgrounds,” the health department wrote in a submission to the House of Commons health committee.
“Nor does the department collect or maintain a comprehensive list of addresses for these facilities in Canada.”
Records show that there are 31 such “safe” injection sites allowed under the Controlled Drugs And Substances Act in six Canadian provinces. There are 13 are in Ontario, five each in Alberta, Quebec, and British Columbia, and two in Saskatchewan and one in Nova Scotia.
The department noted, as per Blacklock’s Reporter, that it considers the location of each site before approving it, including “expressions of community support or opposition.”
Michel had earlier told the committee that it was not her job to decide where such sites are located, saying, “This does not fall directly under my responsibility.”
Conservative MP Dan Mazier had asked for limits on where such “safe” injection drug sites would be placed, asking Michel in a recent committee meeting, “Do you personally review the applications before they’re approved?”
Michel said that “(a)pplications are reviewed by the department.”
Mazier stated, “Are you aware your department is approving supervised consumption sites next to daycares, schools and playgrounds?”
Michel said, “Supervised consumption sites were created to prevent overdose deaths.”
Mazier continued to press Michel, asking her how many “supervised consumption sites approved by your department are next to daycares.”
“I couldn’t tell you exactly how many,” Michel replied.
Mazier was mum on whether or not her department would commit to not approving such sites near schools, playgrounds, or daycares.
An injection site in Montreal, which opened in 2024, is located close to a kindergarten playground.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has called such sites “drug dens” and has blasted them as not being “safe” and “disasters.”
Records show that the Liberal government has spent approximately $820 million from 2017 to 2022 on its Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy. However, even Canada’s own Department of Health admitted in a 2023 report that the Liberals’ drug program only had “minimal” results.
Recently, LifeSiteNews reported that the British Columbia government decided to stop a so-called “safe supply” free drug program in light of a report revealing many of the hard drugs distributed via pharmacies were resold on the black market.
British Columbia Premier David Eby recently admitted that allowing the decriminalization of hard drugs in British Columbia via a federal pilot program was a mistake.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s loose drug initiatives were deemed such a disaster in British Columbia that Eby’s government asked Trudeau to re-criminalize narcotic use in public spaces, a request that was granted.
Official figures show that overdoses went up during the decriminalization trial, with 3,313 deaths over 15 months, compared with 2,843 in the same time frame before drugs were temporarily legalized.
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