Forwarded Message:
From: Joan Eakin <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 20:53:55 -0500
Subject: of interest re health care system
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Forwarded Message:
From: Irene Jansen <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 12:35:10 -0500
Subject: Health Canada National Conferences
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Hello!
This message is to let you know about upcoming national
conferences on
health issues which you or your colleagues may be able to attend.
Please
copy this information and distribute it among your networks.
As some of you may know, the federal government is holding a
series of
national conferences this winter to discuss three policy areas:
pharmacare,
health information and home care. The conferences are funded under
the
Health Transition Fund of $150 million which was announced in the
last
federal budget. (The Fund will also be spent on pilot and evaluation
projects across Canada related to four priorities: pharmacare, home
care,
primary care, and integrated service delivery.)
The conferences will involve about 250 participants coming from
unions,
governments, business, academics, non-governmental organizations
and
selected members of the "informed public". There is no registration
fee
and
some meals are provided, but travel and accommodation must be
paid by
participants. Health Canada will provide some subsidies for
community
groups which have no money.
The Canadian Health Coalition will organize pre-conference sessions
for
representatives of labour, academia and social justice groups - to
develop
a strategy for the conference.
I think these are important conferences - as the first national
consultations following the National Forum on Health and following
the
federal election when the Liberals promised to "reinvest" and to
expand
medicare to include pharmacare and homecare. Since then, both ears
of the
federal government have been tuned to industry: brand name drug
companies,
insurers, high tech firms, service providers and manufacturers.
Provincial
governments, meanwhile, are lobbying against national standards for
health
and social programs.
With this cozey relationship between government and industry, the
Transition Fund could well be spent subsidizing health corporations
involved in the "transit" to two-tier health care. It is important for
unions, social groups and academics to insist that new programs
such as
pharmacare, homecare and centralized health information systems
be public
non-profit programs developed for citizens and not commercial
interests.
Health Canada will set aside a certain number of seats at these
conferences
for academics, and I hope that together we can spread word about
these
gatherings and fill those seats with progressive academics. If you or
anyone you know is able to attend, please let either myself or Mike
McBane
at the Canadian Health Coalition (613-521-3400 ext. 308) know so that
we
can coordinate. The Canadian Health Coalition will organize
pre-conference
sessions for representatives of labour, academia and social justice
groups
- to develop a strategy and recommendations for the conference. Feel
free
to e-mail or call me (13-237-1590 ext. 320) for more information.
Irene Jansen
Research Branch
Canadian Union of Public Employees
Joan M. Eakin
Department of Public Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A8
Office phone: +01 416-978-8502
Office FAX: +1 416-978-2087
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Street Address:
McMurrich Building, Rm 105
12, Queen's Park Crescent West
|
