Vol. 100 No. 43
Philip Webber, President
Franco Gallo, Secretary
Next meeting: Tuesday May 15, 2018 Connie Joksvik Medical Assistance in Dying, MAID 101 Note this is a change from the information provided in the last Rotor.
Connie Jorsvik, RN is a board member with the Vancouver Chapter of Dying with Dignity. Dying With Dignity Canada is the national not-for-profit organization committed to improving quality of dying, protecting end-of-life rights, and helping Canadians avoid unwanted suffer. It has been defending human rights by advocating for assisted dying rules that respect the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It also provides personal support to adults suffering greatly from a grievous and irremediable medical condition who wish to die on their own terms. Connie has been an RN for 25 years and currently is a senior healthcare navigator with Patient Pathways, a patient advocate provider.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday May 22, 2018 Samuel Hyman, LLB, Burns Fitzpatrick Law Vancouver's Affordability Crisis and A Tale of Two Citizenships: the erosion of Canada's core values, tax base, and their corrosive damage to our national fabric
Sam’s experience goes beyond the courtroom as he has taught Immigration and Refugee Law as an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, and he is a presenter and lecturer at lawyers’ continuing legal education courses and seminars in BC and the USA. Sam is consulted by news organizations in Canada and the USA covering immigration and citizenship issues for media background and commentary.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday May 29, 2018 Club Day! Details to be announced.
Note BBQ is included for all conference registrants
Please ask your friends, family (including children and grandchildren, cousins, uncles and aunts) to this family Barbeque event. Everyone is welcome. This promises to be a highlight of the conference.
Contact Peter Clarke to register for the Barbeque.
Diane Evans, wife of Jim Evans, who is in hospital in France having fallen ill while vacationing.
Great to see Kendall Jessiman who attended the meeting. Recovery being slow but steady.
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Last Meeting May 8, 2018
President Elect Brian Street chaired the meeting and gave the invocation.
Kayo Otake accompanied us on the piano for the singing of O Canada.
John Hayto, acting Sergeant-at-Arms Elect, introduced visitors and guests.
Chair's (Brian Street's) announcements:
A Paul Harris Fellow +4 was presented to Franz Gehriger in recognition of his contributions.
Parisa Adrangi, has been recognized by the Terminal City Club as their member of the month for May. CLICK HERE to read the article about Parisa highlighted in the Terminal City Times newsletter. Congratulations Parisa!
New members are strongly encouraged to check out the Club's committees (International Service, Community Service, Youth, Hearing Foundation, Bike-a-thon, PR & Marketing to name a few). It is by attending these meetings that you can determine what inspires you, who you like to work with and how best to be active within the Club. New voices and perspectives are always welcome. Keep an eye out in the weekly Rotor or contact Carolyn for dates of upcoming meetings.
Secretary's, Franco Gallo, announcements:
reminders of upcoming events/meetings (see above);
birthdays:Tugce Irtenk May01, Robert Dueck May09
member anniversaries:Gordon Esau 36 years, Don McPhee 26 years, Diego Centanni 5 years
wedding anniversaries: Jack & Donna Lee Zaleski 30 years May14
Special announcements; members' moments:
Jack Zaleski and Blair Trenholm, co-chairs of the Bike-a-thon Committee encouraged all to get involved in one form or another. Ride, fundraise, promote, volunteer. Blair is the volunteer coordinator so if you have any questions about what is needed and how you can help, please contact him. It was also announced that Pierre Adjoury, a seasoned racer whose achievements include completing 4 Ironman races, will be a co-chair for the bike-a-thon event.
Joan Posivy let us know that there are 90 people registered so far for the Rotaract 50th Anniversary event. The make-up being about 50/50 Rotarians & Rotaractors. If you are interested in attending, let Joan know asap and she will do her best to fit you in.
Program:
Michael Woolnough introduced our guest speaker, Bacchus Barua, Associate Director, Centre for Health Policy Studies at the Fraser Institute.
Bacchus provided some very interesting and succinct information regarding the state of the Canadian healthcare system. For those who are unaware, the Fraser Institute is an independent and non-partisan think tank. It's mission is to improve the day to day lives of Canada's citizens.
The presentation covered four areas of inquiry:
1) Is Canada the only country with universal healthcare?
2) How good is our healthcare system?
3) How sustainable is our healthcare system?
4) How can we improve our healthcare system?
Canada is not the only country with universal healthcare. The Organization for Economic Coooperation and Development (OECD) is made up of 34 countries. Canada is one of them. Now comparing apples to apples, 2 countries are eliminated as they are medium income (versus high income), and another 3 are eliminated because they do not have any form of universal healthcare. That leave 29 countries with which it is fare to compare our system to.
How does Canada's system measure up to the others? It is a bit messy because the results for health status is affected by non-medical factors. The areas we look at are:
How much do we pay (healthcare spending) versus what we get in return (availability of resources, access i.e., timelines, utilization of available resources, and quality of performance.
Canada is in the top tier for spending and at or near the bottom for all areas we get in return with exception of the number of nurses per capita (we are average). This means very low number of doctors per capita, terrible wait times, etc.
To improve, Canada needs to study those countries who are successful, e.g., Netherlands, France, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany & Australia.
Note that universal health care means governments ensuring that all of their citizens have equal access to healthcare regardless of the citizen's economic situation and ability to pay. This does include private health care working in tandem with public, or in some cases completely private. For example, in Switzerland all healthcare facilities are private, including for-profit hospitals. Their system is universal in that the government will subsidize, to the point of covering all costs if necessary for citizens who cannot afford to pay. Those who can afford to pay, do without government assistance.
In summary:
1) There are 28 other universal healthcare systems globally that compare to ours
2) For the high cost of our system, we are receiving average to poor value
3) There are significant challenges ahead with the changing demographic -- baby boomers needing more healthcare and less younger people to pay for it
4) We can and must learn from other more successful universal healthcare systems.
To view a copy of Bacchus' presentation, CLICK HERE.
For more information on the subject from the Fraser Institute, CLICK HERE.