In his new book, the Globe and Mail health columnist outlines the many ways our much-lauded health care system can do better.
Canadians have a complicated relationship with our health care system. We love to point out all its faults and failures, yet we’re thankful the only bill we pay at the hospital are the parking tickets. We’re deeply proud of Tommy Douglas. Some would go so far as to say our health care system defines us as Canadians. Which is one of André Picard’s biggest pet peeves.
The Montreal-based health columnist has been writing about Canadian public health issues for The Globe and Mail for nearly 30 years. It’s all he ever tweets about, if you couldn’t already tell by his handle, @PicardonHealth. He’s been named a “public health hero” by our country’s top public health experts and even stops in on hospitals around the world when on holiday. Once, in an emergency room in Spain, he asked the triage nurse what wait times were like. She looked confused. “Why would anyone wait? It’s an emergency room,” she said.
Picard talked to Chatelaine about what Canada is doing right, how we can be better, and how we compare, not just to our southern neighbours but to the rest of the world.
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