Archive for category: Government

Health and social care workers were often let down by the government whose claims that it was ‘guided by the science’ when developing policy to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic were questionable, according to an editorial published online today in The BMJ.

Many questions need to be answered when assessing how well the UK responded to the pandemic, says an opinion piece written by editor in chief of The BMJ, Kamran Abbasi, and Martin McKee and Kara Hanson, both from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London. read more

An ICU physician is criticizing Ont. Premier Doug Ford’s throne speech, saying the government “has no plan” to help health-care workers and may not believe “there’s any type of crisis” in the province’s overburdened hospital system.

“The system is under way more stress than it ever has been,” Dr. Michael Warner, a physician at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital, told CTV News Channel Tuesday. “If we have any type of COVID bump in the fall, I think the system will be brought to its knees.” read more

The federal government needs to stop “quibbling” with provinces and territories about health care and sit down with them to work out how to restore Canada’s “crumbling” system, British Columbia Premier John Horgan said Tuesday.

It’s been eight months since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to meet with the premiers to address their request for stable, long-term health-care funding, and that meeting is overdue, Horgan told a news conference at the start of the final day of the premiers’ Council of the Federation gathering in Victoria.

“That’s why we’re reinforcing today unanimity in our desire to have the federal government call a meeting … We can sit down and solve these problems for Canadians, not for provinces and the federal government, but for Canadians,” said Horgan, who chairs the council. read more

Congress should crack down on Medicare Advantage health plans for seniors that sometimes deny patients vital medical care while overcharging the government billions of dollars every year, government watchdogs told a House panel Tuesday.

Witnesses sharply criticized the fast-growing health plans at a hearing held by the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. They cited a slew of critical audits and other reports that described plans denying access to health care, particularly those with high rates of patients who were disenrolled in their last year of life while likely in poor health and in need of more services. read more

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law early Thursday prohibiting local governments and schools from imposing their own mask mandates—less than two days after Texas did the same—as more Republican-led states go a step beyond lifting their mask orders by ensuring local officials cannot put their own rules in place.

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