December 7, 2022

Reporting on Access to Health Care in Rural Canada 📈

December 07, 2022

Clearing a New Pathâ„¢ and Clearing a New Path Podcastâ„¢ are products of Radar Media, located in Dorchester, Ontario on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Neutral peoples who once used this land as their traditional beaver hunting grounds.  As a settler here I’m committed to deepening understanding of Indigenous communities and reframing responsibilities to land and community. I am grateful to Mother Earth for the opportunity for love and connection and to the spirits of the Elders and the Medicine People who still walk the Earth.

DECEMBER 7, 2022

I come to this work as a white woman of privilege; a vulnerable allyship student.I get things wrong often and I am open to, and welcome opportunities to be called in about the content in this newsletter, in order to create safe, brave spaces for all. The purpose is to unite people in rural Canada.I am grateful to walk along this journey in grace, love and empathy together.Simply hit 'reply' to contribute, suggest and correct.

Solutions-based journalism is reporting about people and organizations responding to social problems.I'm looking to add folks to my team to cover more issues with more urgency.Your support, no matter the size, can help.

ASSESSING ACCESS TO HEALTH CAREIN RURAL CANADA

Hello Amazing Humans,Last week, we talked about the BC Rural Health Network (BCRHN), a grassroots organization that really got its start like many powerful citizen-led organizations do, around a kitchen table.

The organization is made up of citizen-led initiatives, researchers, municipalities and other concerned organizations and has a

.

Another group that is still working to be heard are the physicians working in rural and remote communities.

They are fully aware of the wait times, the lack of access to a family doctor and the travel times some rural and remote Canadians need to drive in order to see a specialist or maybe even get basic, sometimes urgent care.This is not what they signed up for.

The implementation committee was made up of representatives from fifteen different organizations, all with the interest in driving change, including the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada and the Canadian Association for Rural and Remote Nursing.

Two representatives from that implementation committee spoke with me about why the report card was done, what the results have been and what the path forward is for rural Canadian health care.

Dr. Ruth Wilson is a practicing family physician in Yellowknife, and a Professor Emerita of family medicine at Queen’s University, where she was chair of the department. Before her twenty-nine years at Queen’s she spent twelve years in rural and remote family practice, including anesthesia and obstetrics, in Bella Coola, BC, Sioux Lookout Ontario, and Baie Verte Newfoundland.

She served as Chair of the Ontario Family Health Network. She is a past president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

She co-chaired the Advancing Rural Family Medicine Collaborative Task Force from and co-chaired the Rural Road Map Implementation Committee.

Dr. James Rourke was an active rural family physician, including obstetrics and emergency work, in Goderich, Ontario, for 25 years with his wife and medical partner, Dr. Leslie Rourke. Their practice was one of the primary Rural Family Medicine teaching sites at Western University.

Since finishing as the Dean of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2016, Dr. Rourke has been chair of the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools and is currently Chair of the ASPIRE-to-Excellence, a program that awards exemplary medical school programs, and he provides sought-after advice on rural health, healthcare restructuring, medical education, and research.

WHAT ELSE IS BEING DONE TO ADDRESS THE RURAL HEALTH CARE CRISISIN CANADA?

ALBERTA

Imagine Citizens Network is an Alberta-based, independent, citizen-led organization whose focus is on the priorities of citizens in the healthcare system. Their vision is a health system intentionally designed in partnership between citizens and other stakeholders to achieve the best possible experiences and outcomes for all Albertans.

MANITOBA

NOVA SCOTIA

ering a new program called single-paramedic emergency response, which allows paramedics to treat low-acuity patients on scene without transport to hospital.

YUKON TERRITORIES

A new Yukon EMS unit is focused on addressing the territory's substance use crisis. The Yukon government declared a substance use emergency in January after a string of overdose deaths took place in the first three weeks of the year.

RURAL HEALTH RESEARCH PODCAST

The

at the University of British Columbia has a great podcast, highlighting leading researchers in rural health care in Canada.

They call it

WHAT IS A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT?

From the Canadian Association of Physician Assistants (CAPA):

"The Physician Assistant (PA) profession evolved in the United States during the mid-1960s, in response to a shortage and uneven geographical distribution of doctors. The PA profession alleviated doctors from performing routine technical tasks in hospitals allowing more patients to be served and physicians to focus where their skills would be better utilized.These days, PAs continue to be a safe and effective part of the U.S. health system with almost 130,000 practicing PAs and 225 accredited programs."

A grassroots organization called Grandview Health Care Solutions came together n 2017 and it grew out of a community response from Grandview and Tootinaowaziibeeng Treaty Reserve to maintain the Grandview Emergency Medical Services station as an essential service of the local healthcare system for both communities and surrounding areas. The role of the group expanded to advocate that the Grandview District Hospital be maintained as an acute care facility with 24/7 Emergency Service. The group promotes keeping Healthcare close to home in rural Manitoba and supports the Grandview Healthcare model as a viable system, essential for the health of all community members.

RURAL BOOKS AND AUTHORS

This Sunday will be the first interview with a rural-based author. You may remember Ann Douglas from her many years as the voice of all things parenting on CBC Radio. She is also one of Canada’s most trusted writers. Now she’s turning her attention to the glorious messiness that is midlife in her new book, called Navigating the Messy Middle.She is the author of 26 non-fiction books, including many bestselling titles in the parenting category, and a passionate and inspiring speaker who delivers keynote addresses and leads small-group workshops at conferences and online events. Ann and her husband Neil live in rural Ontario, where she is hard at work on her first novel.

Like this newsletter?Please help fund original stories focused on rural Canada.Every donation helps!

SUPPORTERS

This newsletter and the Clearing a New Pathâ„¢ podcast are supported by Xplore Business, formerly Xplornet Enterprise Solutions.