Trudeau’s health care promises have doctors excited

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With the new Liberal majority government in place, Canadians are taking stock of what they’ve been promised over the last two and a half months and how the new government’s plans will affect them.

As a doctor and a scientist, I wanted to share the top five things that excite me the most.

The first is funding for the care of patients at home.

The Liberals promised to negotiate a new health accord with the provinces and have committed $3 billion to home care specifically.

They plan to make it easier to find and cheaper to hire home care professionals, but also promise to extend EI benefits to family members who decide to stay home to care for loved ones themselves.

If this works, it will take a lot of pressure of our stretched hospital system.

The next is the Liberal commitment to help coordinate bulk prescription drug purchases by the provinces.

Although this isn’t as good as a national pharma care plan, it will go a long way to reducing the costs of drugs for provinces, which should free up money for other health areas.

The third is allowing scientists to freely share their findings with the public.

Since 2008, government scientists have been required to refer media inquiries to Ottawa for approval. But because those approvals often depended on the government’s viewpoint, some have said the public was getting biased information.

The Liberals not only promise to go back to allowing scientists to speak freely about their work, but also pledge to use that science to inform policy decisions.

Fourth is restoring the long-form mandatory census, which was eliminated in 2010.

The census is what allowed us to determine what Canadian people and communities actually looked like, and enabled us to make evidence-based decisions around public health planning.

Having that information will not only allow us to improve Canadian public health, but will also be a valuable resource for scientists doing national health studies.

Last is the Liberal promise to regulate trans fats.

Artificial trans fats are used in things like snack foods, baked goods, and deep-frying oils.

They extend the shelf life of these foods, but dramatically increase LDL cholesterol (or so called “bad” cholesterol) in our bodies, increasing the risks of heart attacks and strokes.

The FDA has ruled that trans fats must be phased out of all foods sold in the US within three years.

The Liberals are now promising to follow suit.

The Liberals have obviously made a lot of important promises in the health and science arenas, and if they follow through, we have a lot to look forward to.