 |
| Sunrise over Whitby, ON |
So, what's in store from a healthcare perspective for the coming year?
Quite a bit, it seems:
- for starters, the Ontario Provincial government's changing its leader -- this means that in all probability, cabinet ministers will change, policies will change -- heck if the opposition parties have their way, even the government may change. New leader prospects are promising us they'll work hard to consider ideas from outside of government; opposition leaders are promising to get rid of waste in terms of unnecessary departments
- while all this is going on, we still have to contend with the limited healthcare resources available to fight the vagaries of winter; we're being bombarded with TV news images of hospital corridors jammed with flu patients, whilst reporting on the fact that vaccines are not really as effective as we've been told
- Deb Matthews, our current Minister of Health, recently discussed the possibility of off-loading specialized procedures such as joint, colonoscopies, cataracts etc. to clinics -- this no doubt will add some uncertainty to the healthcare debate; for example, what effect this will have on the HBAM hospital funding model
What should we be doing to mitigate the effects of the above on our (and our loved ones') personal health?
- the weather's certainly been giving us a wild ride in terms of recent temperature variations --- +15°C in mid January???; it's -14°C, 10 days later
Well, we should be:
- getting the requisite amounts of nutrition (including supplements), exercise and rest
- managing our health with an EMR/PHR combination
- (as I've been told recently) dressing for the season, not for the current weather
- trying our best to stay away from hospitals -- they're deemed to be the breeding grounds for germs
Until next time, remember to also watch out for the ice -- no-one looks pretty grimacing after a fall, and image is everything -- even during winter!
Ernest A. James
President and CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.
