Alberta and Saskatchewan’s health ministers say they haven’t been approached by Ottawa about signing onto the federal pharmacare program since the spring election.
Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill says he hasn’t discussed his province’s involvement in the program since former federal minister Mark Holland was in office.
Adriana LaGrange, Alberta’s minister of primary and preventative health services, says she too hasn’t received any indication from Ottawa that it’s still looking to sign more deals.
They were speaking at the end of a meeting of provincial health ministers from across the country in Calgary, ahead of another meeting Friday with federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel.
LaGrange says she expects pharmacare to come up in Friday’s discussion “as an aside.”
Three provinces and one territory have so far have signed onto the program, which sees Ottawa fund coverage for contraceptives and diabetes medication.
Michel’s office says the federal government is monitoring the existing pharmacare deals and is committed to honouring them.
A spokesperson for LaGrange, who was co-chairing the two days of meetings in Calgary with Michel, said the minister is looking for federal commitments to existing health funding programs and strategies to address health-care worker shortages.
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Her office said she’s also looking for a promise from Ottawa to give Alberta its “fair share” of funding for provincial pharmacare, without the province signing on to the national program.
LaGrange has said she believes Alberta’s existing coverage plans are sufficient and that the province would like to see Ottawa use the funding to boost the provincial program instead.
While in Calgary, the ministers are also set to meet with national doctors and nurses organizations, which are calling for co-operation at both levels of government for new ways to support and retain health workers.
Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, said she’ll be pushing the ministers to take action on abuse nurses are subject to on the job.
“We really need to get a commitment from the health ministers that we will work on changing the culture in health care,” Silas said in an interview.
“It’s simple: ministers need to direct their health employers that if a nurse or a health-care worker gets hit, the patient (or) the family member will get charged.”
Silas said her organization has been calling for the change for decades.
“It’s almost embarrassing,” she said. “We know as a society that you would never assault a police officer, because automatically you’d be charged. We don’t have that attitude in health care.”
The Canadian Medical Association, which represents physicians across the country, released survey data this week suggesting doctors are also struggling with mistreatment at the hands of patients or their family members.
The survey was completed by about 3,300 physicians, medical residents and fellows earlier this year. Preliminary results suggest 74 per cent experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination on the job, down from 78 per cent in 2021.
Association president Dr. Margot Burnell said in a statement that more work is still needed to ensure doctors can “thrive in a health system that provides care to patients while supporting providers.”
About 46 per cent of respondents also reported “high levels” of burnout, a drop from 53 per cent four years ago.
Burnell said while the survey suggests meaningful improvements in some areas, doctors “still feel the heavy burden of an overstretched health-care system.”
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