Government Must Act to Save and Cover Hospital Fertility Services

Friends of Medicare joined patients impacted by the planned closure of uninsured fertility services at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women and supporters at the Alberta Legislature today to call on the Ministry of Health to reverse the planned closure and begin covering in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) treatment.

Government Needs to Take Clear Action to End Blurred Lines for Private Clinics

SENDING FERTILITY PATIENTS TO PRIVATE CARE IS THE WRONG DIRECTION

Friends of Medicare are calling for a reversal of the AHS decision to terminate services at the Edmonton Regional Fertility and Women's Endocrine Clinic at Edmonton's Lois Hole Hospital.

News broke November 2 via twitter that the clinic will no longer offer services such as Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), as well as donor eggs and sperm programs. Patients will now be referred to private clinics in Edmonton or Calgary for those services.

New National Report Outlines the Huge Cost of the Failed Health Accord

As Health Ministers from across Canada meet in Edmonton this week, Canada's Health Coalitions released a report showing the recent bilateral health schemes pushed through by the Trudeau government have come at a huge cost.  The report "Health Accord Breakdown: Costs and Consequences of the Failed 2016/17 Negotiations" calculates that the failure of the Health Accord will mean a health care funding shortfall of $31 billion for the provinces with no concrete targets to improve public health care for Canadians and no plan to bridge the fiscal gap. Calling the rhetoric around health transformation and target funds for home and mental health care "more PR than substance", the coalitions also tallied the non-monetary costs of the lost Health Accord: the grave problems of under capacity in public hospitals, long-term and community care; long-waits; growing inequities and problems with access to care that will continue without any national plan to address them.

Canadian Health Advocates to Premiers: Stand up for Public Health Care

Health care advocates from across the country gathered in Edmonton today at a rally outside the Hotel Macdonald to call on Canada’s Premiers to fight for patients and call for fair federal funding for health care.

Pure North Funding Cancellation Welcomed

Friends of Medicare are pleased to see that Alberta's Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman has cancelled funding for the Precision Health clinic operated by Pure North after CBC News revealed the clinic had been offering unproven treatment to a patient.

Friends of Medicare are applauding Alberta Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman on the introduction of Bill 3, the "Voluntary Blood Donations Act", which aims to protect the voluntary blood and plasma collection system in Alberta by banning the sale of plasma in the province.

Canada's Health Coalitions Call for a United Health Accord

Federal Government Must Return to the Negotiation Table

Canada’s Health Coalitions signed a joint statement and held a media conference today on the recent bilateral health care deals and called for a united health accord.

The statement follows:

Alberta and Ottawa Must Reject Sale of Continuing Care to Chinese Investment Company

Sale of Retirement Concepts to Chinese Insurance Company Anbang Would Impact Patients in 2 Calgary Based Supportive Living Centres

Friends of Medicare are calling on governments in Alberta and Ottawa to oppose and reject the sale of Alberta's continuing care in two Calgary supportive living facilities to international investors.

As reported on November 28 in the Globe & Mail multi-billion dollar Chinese based Anbang Insurance Group intends to takeover BC based Retirement Concepts in a bid estimated to be worth over a billion dollars. Retirement Concepts also owns and operates Millrise Place and Monterey Place supportive living facilities in Calgary.