Vulnerable patients need attention: Philpott
Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott says Canada’s doctors have a major role to play in improving the health of the country’s most vulnerable populations, including those at risk for a fatal overdose due to rampant opioid use and abuse, a crisis she characterized as a national public health emergency.
In a speech Monday to delegates attending the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association in Quebec City, Philpott said any approach to the crisis needs to be comprehensive and collaborative.
“Doctors have a huge role, including promoting awareness that social inequity and unresolved trauma are often at the root of high-risk drug use. This includes homelessness, poverty, violence and sexual abuse,” she said.
“Addiction is not a crime, nor a mark of moral failure. It is a health issue ... people who use drugs are people who do not need judgment. They need what all Canadians expect from health systems — that is, compassionate care.”
Asked by reporters after her speech if the opioid crisis should be formally declared a national emergency, Philpott said there is no federal public health law that would provide any additional tools to fight the crisis “that we don’t already have.”
“It would offer no advantages to us,” she said, noting that one area the Liberal government has been focused on is harm reduction, including the approval of 14 new supervised injection sites, bringing their number to 16 across the country.
Outgoing CMA president Dr. Granger Avery said the organization is “entirely congruent with how we need to work” in a collaborative manner with government and other health providers, not only to tackle the opioid crisis, but also to help other vulnerable groups focused on by Philpott, among them Indigenous Canadians and youth with mental health issues.
“The whole principle of shared care ... the CMA and doctors in general have that way high on the list,” Avery told The Canadian Press in an interview.
In a question-and-answer session with delegates following her address, Philpott was questioned about the government’s intention to close tax loopholes for incorporated businesses, which includes many doctors’ medical practices.
In July, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau released a policy paper that proposes significant changes to how private corporations are taxed. Doctors and other businesses have been asked to comment on the proposal during a 75day consultation process that ends Oct. 2.
The tax changes have become a hot-button issue for the 85,000-member CMA, which argues that doctors in private practice do not have pensions or receive benefits like most salaried employees, and tax changes would make it more difficult for physicians to save for retirement, cover maternity leave, or work part time while raising a family. Female physicians, in particular, would suffer, the organization says.
“We assume the risks of establishing offices and clinics, employing staff and purchasing equipment. Many of us do not have access to paid sick leave benefits or retirement pensions,” said Dr. Gigi Osler of Winnipeg.
“What assurance can you give us that the government will take our concerns into serious consideration?” asked Osler to thunderous applause, hooting and table-pounding by fellow delegates.
Philpott responded that the concerns expressed by doctors are being taken into serious consideration, but she encouraged CMA members to read the proposals carefully and not to believe hearsay being circulated on social media about what they might mean.