William B.P. Robson – Addressing The Health Crisis Is Addressing The Economic Crisis
From: William B.P. Robson To: Canada’s Finance and Health Ministers Date: January 18, 2021 Re: Addressing the Health Crisis is Addressing the Economic Crisis The world has bid an unfond farewell to 2020 – but not, sadly, to COVID-19. A good time to review how the pandemic has affected health, livelihoods and public finances in Canada and abroad, […] Bhatia, Jamieson, Shaw, Piovesan, Kelley, Falk – Embrace A Patient-centric And Cost-effective Healthcare System With Virtual Care
From: R. Sacha Bhatia, Trevor Jamieson, James Shaw, Carole Piovesan, Leah T. Kelley and William Falk To: Canadian Health Policy Watchers Date: January 14, 2021 Re: Embrace a Patient-centric and Cost-effective Healthcare System with Virtual Care A virtual care revolution is underway in Canada, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just four percent of doctors […] Fred Horne – Are We Serious About Senior Care In Canada?
From: Fred Horne To: Canadians Concerned about Long-Term Care Date: January 11, 2021 Re: Are We Serious about Senior Care in Canada? Long-term care accounts for four out of every five deaths from COVID-19 in Canada – more than 10,000 to date. Thanks to that tragic statistic, we can only hope that politicians, health system leaders and Canadians […] William B.P. Robson – Let’s Drop The ‘We Can’t Go Back’ Post-covid Fantasies
From: William B.P. Robson To: Canadians Contemplating 2021 Date: January 5, 2021 Re: Let’s Drop the ‘We Can’t Go Back’ Post-COVID Fantasies Of all the COVID-inspired clichés of 2020, “we can’t go back to how we were before” gets my vote for most trying. Taken literally, it is empty. We can’t undo the deaths, restore students’ lost instruction, […] 2020 Hindsight – William Robson: Our Year Of Magical Thinking – Financial Post Op-ed
Of all the COVID-inspired clichés of 2020, “we can’t go back to how we were before” gets my vote for most trying.
Taken literally, it is empty. We can’t undo the deaths, restore students’ lost instruction, give young people the first jobs they didn’t get, erase the huge debts, enjoy the travel and human contact that didn’t happen. No, we can’t go back to 2019 — which is too bad.
Taken as an exhortation — “we shouldn’t go back to how we were before” — it is too often a prelude to magical thinking, a great leap to some environmental, economic or political nirvana previously out of reach. That is silly. A sick person who was never an athlete can dream of completing a triathlon. But their first task is to recover. In the same…
Keep the virtual healthcare revolution going – Financial Post Op-Ed
One very big silver lining to 2020 was the dramatic uptake in the use of virtual health care in Canada. During the first wave of the pandemic over 70 per cent of outpatient care was delivered virtually. Before COVID-19, speaking to a family doctor about a new health problem, simply getting a prescription renewal or having a visit with a specialist required most Canadians to take time off work, travel to their local clinic or hospital and sit in a waiting room for upwards of an hour or more. But now doctors can bill for virtual visits and Canadians can receive medical care from the comfort of their own home.
As the second wave crests, and hospitals are once again filling up with COVID patients, providing care to other patients…
S2 E22: 2020 – The Year of Unprecedented Times
2020 will be known as “the year of unprecedented times.” As COVID-19 vaccine injections begin, we look back at how Canada handled the pandemic – what we did right and what we did wrong – with crisis communications expert David Herle of The Gandalf Group, and the C.D. Howe Institute’s CEO Bill Robson. S2 E21: Ontario’s COVID Response with Steven Del Duca
Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca says if made premier, he would make education his top priority. But by 2022 it’s expected COVID will be behind us as vaccines are distributed through the course of next year. So what’s his plan to get the economy back on track? And is now even the time to […] Canada’s Virtual Care Revolution: A Framework for Success
Virtual Healthcare Revolution Here to Stay The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a healthcare revolution in Canada, forcing a massive shift away from in-person interactions towards virtual care with over 70 percent of ambulatory care across the country during June 2020 represented by virtual care. The authors argue that the pandemic presents the opportunity to embrace […] Managing COVID beyond lockdowns and vaccine research – iPolitics Op-Ed
The sharp escalation of COVID-19 cases this fall has highlighted the problem of governments’ extensive reliance on emergency powers and far-reaching orders that limit activities. Their “acute crisis” approach reflects an undue focus on vaccines as the dominant near-term solution to the pandemic. It neither recognizes nor addresses the uncertain timeline and other major challenges until safe and effective vaccines are available, well distributed, and sufficiently taken up.
Despite the very encouraging recent progress on vaccine development, vaccine-centric policies have led to serious weaknesses in government communications and inadequate resources to deal with the current resurgence. It has made the re-imposition of tough…
S2 E20: Flattening the Curve on the Second Wave
The second wave of COVID-19 is upon us, and hard lessons learned over the spring aren’t necessarily being applied today. So how do we flatten the curve going into the holidays? Hear insights from Colleen M. Flood, University of Ottawa Research Chair in Health Law & Policy; Paul Jenkins, former Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada; […] Daniel Schwanen – Containing Covid-19 In Ontario: Skate To Where The Virus Is Going
To: Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott From: Daniel Schwanen Date: November 18, 2020 Subject: Containing COVID-19 in Ontario – Skate to Where the Virus is Going Ontario’s lower case thresholds for triggering stages of progressively tighter socio-economic restrictions, announced Friday, recalibrate its framework to at least bring it more in line […]