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DocTalk
What loud bells will wake BC doctors and the public to the dangers of Bill 36, the HPOA?
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Dr. Zafar Essak, MD - Vancouver, BC - November 6, 2023.
There is a sleeping sickness throughout our land. It has found its way into health care and affected all the doctors. It is not some esoteric thing happening in some small political arena or lawyers club. This impacts all of BC and all of us: the ability of doctors to practice medicine the way they were taught and trained, according to their conscience and oath for the benefit of patients.
The significance of Bill 36, the Health Professions and Occupations Act, is profound and the association, Doctors of BC, should be ringing alarm bells. Instead, they are subduing the importance of it, convincing all doctors to move on to the regulations, like lemmings over the cliff. Not only is this unhelpful to doctors, it is actually dangerous for doctors with their purpose and professional obligations to deliver health care to patients. Bells need to ring everywhere, and the association should be dissolved.
Cease Fire Now
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The horrors of doctors and others trying to care for the injured in Gaza under these conditions must stop. We decided to post a news collage cease fire now banner and block on our website and released them on X.com (aka Twitter.com) so others may copy and use on their website or social media. They are also available for download here. There must be a Cease Fire Now.
Psychological inoculation against misinformation and polarization of discussions
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An intriguing bit of research and an online game. Developing an approach to expose people in advance to methods of misinformation before they encounter it. How might this apply generally, not just to "fringe" elements that may be labelled as "fake news", but also to mainstream news or even published articles that may use the same techniques? For example, in the documentary "Waiting To Die - Canada's Health Care Crisis" mention is made of the polarization of public discussions on the introduction of hybrid public and private health care in Canada? This is an example of the "false dichotomy argument" where it is framed as either Canada's universal health care or the US style private care, while totally ignoring that 28 other developed nations have hybrid systems. What can we learn from the research?
Documentary: Waiting To Die - Canada's Health Care Crisis
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A new one hour documentary by Aaron Gunn, "Waiting To Die - Canada's Health Care Crisis" was released yesterday (August 14, 2023) and in the first day it had more than 23,000 views and more than 700 comments from people sharing their own experiences and thoughts.
How I recovered a deleted file
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It's never a good moment when you realize you deleted a file you need and it's not in the trash. It's been totally deleted. This happened to me this morning after I had just finished writing a creative document. I saved the file and just left it in a working folder while I did some email and electronic housekeeping. A while later it was still there with some junk files which I deleted and then looked and saw I had also accidentally deleted the document file. I had not even sent it to the trash from where it would have been simple to restore. The stress and grief I went through on loosing a file was not pleasant but I can share with you how I was able to recover the deleted file.
Times-Colonist OpEd: Dix needs to listen to healthcare providers
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Please read the OpEd by a BC family doctor that while Health Minister Adrian Dix uses findings of the Cayton report to defend the rapid introduction of Bill 36, the HPOA, he refuses to comment on the contradictory content in the report and snubs the issues raised by the Doctors of BC.
Music, food, dancing and a live auction fundraiser Friday June 23 in Vancouver
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Hello everybody - it's time to have some fun while supporting a great cause! The Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine (CSSEM) is holding its fundraiser this Friday night, June 23, at 6pm at the Cold Tea Restaurant, Vancouver. There will be music, food, dancing and a live auction. Tickets ($60 each which includes food) are available through CSSEM.org Hope to see you there! Deadline to purchase tickets is Thursday at 2pm, see https://www.cssem.org/event
York Hsiang
More than 400 doctors attend Bill 36 HPOA Webinar by Doctors of BC
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Update (April 16, 2024): Almost a year has passed and the association Doctors Of BC still has not made the recording of the webinar on Bill36/HPOA available for members to view. Why not?
Dr. Zafar Essak, MD - Vancouver, BC - May 3, 2023.
How important is Bill 36, the new Health Professions and Occupations Act, to doctors, nurses, all health care professionals, and patients? Important enough that more than 400 doctors attended the Doctors of BC Townhall Webinar on Tuesday April 25, 2023 at 6:30 pm. This, in the middle of the week, while doctors are trying to finish work or balancing family and meal time. When was the last time you saw 400 doctors attend a meeting? We haven’t seen a number like that at the DOBC AGM for decades.
It was a very informative webinar organized by DOBC with over 100 questions from doctors to a panel of three Ministry of Health staff, as architects of Bill 36, followed by a panel of the DOBC: President, Dr. Josh Greggain; new CEO, Anthony Knight; staff lawyer, Deborah Viccars; and moderated by Marisa Adair, Director of Communications.
Three Reasons for a Chat with Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC Health Minister Adrian Dix and BC Premier David Eby
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Dr. Zafar Essak, MD - Vancouver, BC - April 5, 2023
Having worked for 40 years as a family physician in BC, when I heard the media announcements recently: that on April 3 vaccine mandates will be lifted on BC public service government workers but not on health care workers until it can become a permanent condition of work in health care, and that we may see only combined vaccines in the fall; it struck me that it’s time we had a real chat. This can’t wait.
Politics is often seen as a glamorous, shiny and sometimes slimy affair. But, seriously, politics is about how we make collective decisions and manage the affairs of our society in our democracy.
There are three things I believe we need to talk about now:
Provincial Health Ministries disregard for the five principles of the Canada Health Act
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In a farewell editorial published in the March 2023 issue of the BC Medical Journal, Dr Brian Day chronicles how the five principles of the Canada Health Act have been disregarded by provincial governments and health ministries across the country. Does this help us understand the sorry state of our medicare system as we see all the media attention related to the nationwide suffering of patients?
