By Pat Van Horne SOAR, CHC, CURC

“I saw a patient three weeks ago in a toilet because it’s either that or you don’t get seen for hours and might leave without being seen. . . You go to work feeling like you’re being set up to fail every freaking day of your life. . . Waiting four to eight hours for care while worried about a condition? That’s an awful situation to be in.”—said Dr. Alan Drummond, who has been working as an emergency physician for four decades and served as the public affairs co-chair of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, The Tyee, December 19 2025

“Colwood, just outside of Victoria, offered to make their doctors municipal employees. These doctors get a salary, a pension, and most of all, work/life balance. . .The Colwood clinic opened earlier this year. Three doctors have been hired so far, with the goal of hiring five more by 2030. Word of the idea is spreading across the country, with municipalities, community health-care organizations and doctors all trying to replicate the same plan. It may not be something every family physician will embrace. But at a time when solutions are in short supply, thinking outside of the box can lead to breakthroughs.”—said a CBC News health wrap-up, December 20 2025

“With 5.9 million Canadians lacking a primary care provider and many more waiting far too long to receive care, governments responded in 2025 with an assortment of potential solutions to improve working conditions for health providers and improve access to care. . . Welcome changes include BC and Manitoba reducing paperwork for doctors, and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia leaning into team-based care clinics. . .On the other hand, Quebec is imposing changes to how doctors are paid, complete with strict penalties to ensure compliance. . .

(five suggestions) (1)Enable doctors to practise where patients need them, including rural, remote and underserviced communities; (2) Reduce barriers for international medical graduates, streamline the steps required for those who wish to come live and work in Canada. . .(3) Improve health data systems . . . (4)Create guidelines for artificial intelligence; this country still lacks the regulatory oversight needed to ensure safety and privacy while holding developers accountable for the technology they create . . .(5) Reduce the health system’s carbon footprint– This may surprise you, but our health system contributes more greenhouse gas emissions than the shipping and aviation industries combined.”—said Dr. Margot Burnell, a New Brunswick medical oncologist and president of the Canadian Medical Association, The Hill Times, January 6 2026  More details on suggestions:

“If you think about palliative care hospices, if you think about group homes for younger people … we often don’t have them living in large institutional settings,” Sinha said. “So why is it that in North America we only do this with frail, older people?”—said Dr. Samir Sinha, geriatrician, clinician scientist and director of health Policy Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), adding that long-term care should move to a ‘small care homes’ model of 10 to 12 people, each with their own private bedroom and bathroom, CBC News, December 28 2025

“I cannot trust them as a reliable partner, no.”—said Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel, adding that there is widespread “misunderstanding” of how vaccines work, coupled with the spread of disinformation on social media, CTV News, Toronto Star, Canadian Press December 26 2025

“(Our)stress levels have dropped “by 80 per cent. . .We don’t plan on going anywhere. It seems like most of the general consensus in the entire province is, you know what? Be a good person, do a good job, treat people nicely. That’s all we really ask, and that’s all we want. We just want to be treated fairly, treated politely, like we would treat you.”—said Matt Ortiz who, with his partner Steve, have decades of nursing experience between them, CBC News, January 5 2026. (Nova Scotia Health has hired 50 Americans in the last year)

“A record 23 % of Americans believe the United States health care system is ‘in a state of crisis’ and 47% think it has ‘major problems’. . . 29% of Americans see ‘cost’ as the most urgent health problem facing the U.S. . .The US health care system has long been criticized by those within the medical community and those outside it. Some of the sector’s biggest issues include how US health insurance giants often cause deadly delays to vital medical procedures and care, the rapidly rising cost of drug prices and the dubiousness of those overseeing US health in the current administration.”—said a recent poll from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America, The Guardian, December 31 2025