Latest news with #Obstetricians
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ottawa-based organization's pre-budget submission takes aim at women's health funding
An Ottawa-based organization is urging the federal government to allocate millions of dollars in Budget 2025 to address gaps and misinformation in women's health, saying the money will advance women's health care across the country. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) is a national organization dedicated to advancing women's health and advocating for better health-care policies across the country. In its pre-budget submission, the organization outlined five key recommendations for government officials to consider while drafting Budget 2025, which is expected to drop in the fall. One of those recommendations is a $20 million investment to close data gaps in women's health by creating a National Women's Health Data Dashboard and improve data collection strategies. The SOGC says the dashboard, which should be a standardized and disaggregated database, will provide meaningful insights into key women's health indicators. This includes data on maternal mortality and morbidity, stillbirth and perinatal loss, menopause and endometriosis. This will help patients make informed decisions about their health and also allow health-care providers to provide more responsive, equitable and cost-effective care, the SOGC added. The organization also said the move will also have economic benefits because incomplete data leads to lost productivity and greater costs to the health-care system. Patients often have to foot hefty bills from unnecessary health-care costs. Currently, provinces and territories are responsible for collecting this data and practices may vary widely. 'The federal government must take a leadership role in co-ordinating and standardizing this data collection, as approaches to health data collection across provinces and territories vary widely. Only national leadership can ensure consistency, comparability and the quality needed to build a reliable, actionable and nationally-focused database and dashboard,' the pre-budget submission read. 'Without co-ordinated, federally driven health data infrastructure, Canada will continue to miss emerging health trends, fall short in reducing system costs and fail to support women whose pain and illness limit their ability to fully participate in the economy.' The recommendation comes after Prime Minister Mark Carney made several promises to protect women's rights in Canada throughout his federal election campaign earlier this year. This includes investments to increase data collection to 'help address women's health gaps in Canada,' as well as investments into under-researched areas like postpartum maternal health. But the platform did not provide specific details about how much money will be allocated to this initiative. 'Under a Liberal government, women's rights in Canada will never be compromised. We will protect these rights, and fight for true equity for women — in health, in the workplace, and in their access to fundamental rights,' the 2025 Liberal Party federal election platform reads. The Liberal Party of Canada also pledged to invest into women's sexual and reproductive health care and health research, including those who identify as 2SLGBTQI+. Women's health still under-researched, underfunded Advocates have been talking about the lack of awareness and knowledge around women's health for years, saying it is a result of historical gender inequality in the research process. Research published in April this year found that the percentage of research abstracts mentioning sex, gender and LGBTQ2S+ populations doubled or quadrupled from 2020 to 2023 but remained at under 10 per cent of overall funded research. The number of female-specific research didn't change much between 2020 to 2023 — female-specific research only made up about seven per cent of all research between 2020 to 2023. A large bulk of that research focused on cancers (breast and gynecologic) or pregnancy. This is despite the Health Portfolio Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis Plus Policy, which mandates for integrated sex and gender-based analyses in Canada. That policy came into effect in 2009 and aimed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in health research. 'Mandates are not affecting the percentage of funding for women's health grants. More efforts and support beyond sex and gender mandates are needed to increase funding for and to diversify female-specific research beyond pregnancy and cancer. Research devoted to women's health factors is key to achieving personalized medicine and improved health outcomes for everyone,' the researchers wrote. The lack of funded research into women's health also means many Canadians are misinformed and susceptible to disinformation. A 2024 Abacus report commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) showed that a majority of Canadians now seek news and information online over TV or radio. Female respondents were more likely than men to use social media and online platforms to find information on specific health conditions, symptoms or treatment options. 'Given the complexity of women's health issues, which can range from endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), menopause and more, the quest for information is real. Women are more likely to experience dismissal or minimization of their symptoms, perpetuating stigma and shame,' the CMA said in a post published in March 2024. 'Algorithms that favour clicks and likes to the detriment of evidence-based facts make it increasingly difficult to discern health facts from fiction.' A 2021 survey from three women's health foundations in Canada — the BC Women's Health Foundation, the Alberta Women's Health Foundation and the Women's College Hospital Foundation — found that a majority of Canadians were misinformed about women's health. The survey suggests that 83 per cent of Canadians didn't know that 30 per cent of women suffer from periods severe enough to interfere with daily activities. The report also said only 20 per cent of Canadians knew that heart disease kills more women than men each year. 'For so long, women's specific health needs have been largely ignored, under-researched, and underfunded. In fact, it takes 17 years for clinical research to filter down to medical practice, but women have only been included in trials for the past 20 years,' said Jennifer Bernard in 2021. Bernard is currently the president and CEO of the SickKids Foundation but was the former president and CEO of the Women's College Hospital Foundation from 2018 to 2023. Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Related How to stay safe near the Ottawa River's Deschênes Rapids Federal cuts are freezing new grads out of the public service
The Sun
17-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Women being hit hardest by NHS delays as treatment backlogs grow across key services
WOMEN are being short-changed by the NHS and make up most of the waiting list, official figures show. New data from NHS England show that 57 per cent of patients waiting for treatment are female while 43 per cent are male. 2 Women are waiting for 3.9million treatments, a million more than the 2.9m listed for men, while the remainder are uncategorised. Female patients also wait longer than males as statistics show they are less likely to be treated within the 18-week target time and more likely to wait over a year. Gynaecology, which looks after women's reproductive health, has the longest waiting list of any single department for working age people. Professor Ranee Thakar, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: 'This data is a vital step in addressing the postcode lottery in gynaecology care. 'Delays can lead to a need for more complex treatment and significantly impact women's health, wellbeing, and daily lives. 'We know that our members are working tirelessly to deliver more appointments and so it is encouraging to see waiting lists begin to fall in recent months.' Overall, the NHS figures show patients living in working class areas, and those from black or Asian backgrounds, are more likely to face long waits. In a blow to the economy, 56 per cent of waiters are of working age – more than 3.5million people, with many unable to work while they wait. Ear, nose and throat clinics have the biggest backlogs, with 616,000 procedures due to be completed. Ophthalmology and gynaecology both account for over 500,000 each, while cardiology and dermatology both have waiting lists of more than 400,000. Wes Streeting brutally slams Kemi AND Farage and demands Tories say sorry for how they ran the NHS in blistering attack Sharon Brennan, of National Voices, said: 'Being honest with the public is an important step to winning back the trust of communities who often feel unheard and sometimes unwanted.' Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'Only by being upfront and shining a light on inequalities can we begin to tackle the problem.'
Irish Times
11-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, July 11th: On maternity hospitals, sexual abuse, and weeping
Sir, – One of the key problems in the maternity services is that we have far too many small maternity units spread out over the country ('Experts call for national review of maternity hospitals,' July 10th). These maternity units are expensive to maintain, have difficulty in attracting sufficient staff, and it is a challenge to keep up the high standards expected of them. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that a maternity unit should have an absolute minimum of 2,500 births per annum. The Irish Institute of Obstetricians recommends a minimum of 2,000 births. However, here in the southeast of the country, we have no less than four smaller maternity units (Clonmel, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford). READ MORE The solution would be an expensive one but would bring wonderful, long-term benefits. A brand-new hospital with all the facilities necessary to have an up-to-date maternity unit, along with surgical and medical facilities, should be built in the epicentre of the southeast with a good road leading to it from each of the southeastern counties – Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Carlow. This concentration of medical and surgical facilities in one place would be in accordance with all of the expert reports recommending the reorganisation of the Irish health service. There would be two obstacles. Such a hospital would cost €2 billion, and all our local politicians would object to the 'downgrading' of their local hospitals. The first obstacle could be overcome, but I suspect we would never get politicians to agree to a top quality hospital if it threatened their local unit. – Yours, etc, TOM O'ROURKE (Retired GP), Gorey, Co Wexford. The presidency Sir, – I would like to put my name forward for the presidency. It should be a sure fire way of uncovering my sins, that I may atone for them. – Yours, etc. FINTAN CADOGAN, Co Cork. Sexual abuse inquiry Sir, – I believe the Government is making another great mistake in the sordid history of institutional child abuse in Ireland by limiting the scope of the proposed inquiry to sexual abuse only. The Tusla website cites four categories of child abuse: neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse. It says that the child may be subjected to more than one form of abuse at the same time and that the impact of the abuse on the child is more important than the intention of the abuser. Clients who as children were sadistically caned or beaten up, in front of other children, I would clinically treat as physically, emotionally and sexually abused. Children who were locked in rooms, humiliated or ignored because they were different from the norm were emotionally abused, but whatever the form of abuse, the damage is essentially done to the psychological integrity of the child. I don't understand why the Government is prioritising sexual abuse. By doing so, all other child abuse victims are being excluded and neglected, in fact, being abused again. If we are going to spend 'tens of millions' and years to do it, why not make it an inclusive, therapeutic and healing process for all the victims of school childhood abuse who would seek to be involved? – Yours, etc, DAMIEN McLELLAN, Consultant psychotherapist, Faithlegg, Co Waterford. New building regulations Sir, – The recent change in building regulations for apartment builds will take a few years to have an impact and will seriously call into question the quality of life discussion around meeting housing need. Building homes is primarily about building sustainable communities and the reduction in spatial provision will have serious adverse impacts on how people live. Storage space is a critical factor in house design and asking individuals and couples to live in compacted units of accommodation adds significantly to the pressure of more persons seeking future housing moves to accommodate expanding lifestyle and community enjoyment. Thus, by default, the Government is fuelling the transient tenant problem. This destabilises communities and places at risk plans for sustainable and viable communities. Government must ask themselves would they seek to live in confined units of accommodation? Developers and investors are seeking continuing governmental guarantees to ensure the viability of housing schemes. Government must now seek to reverse that debate and seek cross guarantees on fixed price contracts, increased site productivity and increased modern methods of construction. A fluid housing market has to have a speculative element within its framework to encourage market competition and consumer choice. The present arrangement with developers and investors has driven out the speculative element within house building and minimised consumer choice leading to spiralling purchase costs, unaffordable rental prices and a now accepted slow pace of productivity. There is an unhealthy comfort blanket that is delaying development and maximising governmental guarantees. In a market where demand is significantly high and supply very weak in comparison, surely there needs to be more speculation by investors and developers. Is supply simply being driven by price? – Yours, etc, BRIAN ROWNTREE, Ardee, Co Louth. Sir, – I notice a barrage of letters today (July 10th) on the proposed smaller apartments. It may come as a surprise to readers to know that Minister for Housing James Browne is also, in effect, Minister for Hares. Shortly, he will issue licences to the 89 coursing clubs to net thousands of hares and trap them in small enclosed spaces where their movement is restricted and they are forced to co-exist with others in a totally unnatural environment. Perhaps this is where he got his inspiration? – Yours, etc, JOAN BURGESS, Cork. Sir, – Forty years ago on a bus in Cork city an eccentric woman from rural north Cork told me: 'They are all living in rabbit hutches with those apartments.' Now, Minister for Housing James Browne wants to enforce smaller and darker apartments on new builds. How insightful was that old woman? 'Rabbit hutches,' indeed. – Yours, etc, MICHAEL O'CONNOR, Midleton, Co Cork. World of weeping Sir, – Thanks to Kathy Sheridan for reminding us of the importance of not being afraid to cry: 'If a politician lacks all compassion, empathy and decency towards their political peers, how can they be trusted to respect ordinary people.'(' Breaking down in tears at the scene was mortifying. It was also the only sane response ,' July 9th). Rachel Reeves's tears in front of the cameras in the House of Commons, has done us all a great favour, even if some people choose to see it as a weakness. We have managed to cloud human emotion in today's world with corporate speak, and at what cost? Just a few days ago I received a call from a well-known, respected and world recognised member of the medical profession. During our conversation, he told me he recently met a former patient when walking around Dublin. She threw her arms around him with tears in her eyes and said, 'oh give me a hug'. A powerful example of human emotion expressed, shared and respected. More tears, including tears of joy shed by men and women without fear and ridicule, would go a long way to show what humanity means, and make daily living a bit more bearable in our troubled world. – Yours, etc, ALICE LEAHY, Director of Services, Alice Leahy Trust, Dublin 8. Palestinian children delayed Sir, – I cannot understand why the Government is delaying the arrival and treatment of seriously ill children from Gaza. It is to our shame that children have died while waiting for permission to travel. The issue, apparently, is that the Government is troubled by the issue of bringing other siblings with them. The reality is that these siblings are very unlikely to be in full health themselves, while not requiring immediate medical treatment. However, the main difficulty I have is how different the Government approach is in facilitating the arrival and acceptance of Gazan people into Ireland from the open arms that were shown to people fleeing the Ukrainian invasion. About 112,000 Ukrainians were welcomed here, provided with housing and their other needs met. English lessons were provided in schools to enable children to receive their education and GPs were arranged. Benefits were paid. One Irish person on a housing list told me they accepted that they might be waiting longer as a result of pressure on housing caused by the increased and emergency demand. We even brought families' beloved pets here, in recognition of how important they were to refugees. How can it be that to one population is supported, while for another population our Government delays the arrival of desperately ill children while quibbling over siblings accompanying them? Are Ukrainian pets more worthy of our support and care than Gazan children? Why the disparity? I don't feel proud of Ireland's response to the horrific events taking place in Palestine. Where are our hundred thousand welcomes now? – Yours, etc, CATHERINE ROCHE , Rathfarnham, Dublin 16. On board with the Russians Sir, – Your article by Conor Gallagher regarding the Shtandart (' We do not support Putin: On board the sanctioned Russian ship in Killiney Bay ,' July 9th) raises some difficult issues regarding Russian sanctions and Russian citizens who might or might not be sympathetic to either Putin or Ukraine. In 2017, this wonderful ship paid a visit to Drogheda for its maritime festival, its young crew putting on amazing acrobatic displays. A few days later, I had the great pleasure of visiting their vessel in Port Oriel, Clogherhead, and meeting some of the crew. Not all were Russian and all had a very easy-going attitude. Several were circus performers who also played their part as crew. I take exception to Barry Ward TD asking for their removal from Irish waters without any proof that they offer a threat to Irish or EU security. Have we not learned from Alexei Navalny and many others that not all Russians are fans of Putin? Be kind to wandering minstrels with nowhere to go, please. – Yours, etc, CHARLIE KAVANAGH, Co Wexford. A solution to teacher shortages Sir, – Your editorial on education being compromised (July 8th) highlighted a deeply concerning reality: 'Almost all primary schools, for example, had to employ unqualified individuals without teaching qualifications as substitutes in the past year.' This stark statement speaks to the ongoing and worsening teacher/ substitute shortage within our primary education system, which calls for urgent, creative, and evidence-based solutions. One such solution lies in the strategic employment of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) graduates within the junior division of primary schools. Such graduates hold specialised degrees in early childhood learning, development, and care and are highly trained in child-led pedagogy, play-based methodologies, emergent literacy, and inclusive early education – skills that align precisely with the needs of children in the early years of primary school. This would not only address staff shortages and relieve pressure on schools currently forced to hire 'unqualified individuals without teaching qualifications' but also provide much-needed continuity and quality in early education, as per Government goals outlined in its First 5 strategy and in other strategic plans. We have the talent. We have the need. What's missing is the political will to connect the two. – Yours, etc. ANN HARRINGTON, Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare. Trump and his US support base Sir, – Ed Power faults the producers of RTÉ's documentary about Noraid for not addressing the 'uncomfortable fact that Irish America . . . would go on to become a power base for Donald Trump and, thus of 21st century neo-fascism'. (' RTÉ's Noraid: Irish America and the IRA leans towards the Che Guevara version of history ,' July 9th). This wrongly assumes it is easy or even possible to say who is part of 'Irish America'. Is membership based on the proportion of one's ancestors who lived in Ireland, on how recently those ancestors emigrated, on the degree of one's interest in Ireland, or perhaps on whether one celebrates St Patrick's Day or even called it 'St Patty's Day'? And what is the actual evidence that Irish America, however defined, is more of a power base for Trump than Italian America, German America, or English America, all equally hazy entities? – Yours, etc, FRANK GAVIN, Toronto, Canada. Left unguarded Sir, – Clearly nobody is guarding the subeditor when a heading such as 'Guardian ad litems' (sic) appears in the letters page. –Yours, etc, GEARÓID Ó BRÁDAIGH, Co Westmeath. Sunshine drinking Sir, – The article, ' Ten of the best Dublin pubs in sunny weathe r', July 10th, states that even a footpath in the evening sun, with a decent pint, will suffice. The article's photograph shows people drinking from glass bottles on the Grand Canal lock gates, the canal bank and the footpath on the opposite side of the canal. I didn't realise that drinking from glass bottles was permitted on a public footpath. Perhaps your correspondent could report on the clean-up of this space by unfortunate Dublin City Council workers after the revelry has ended, or assist local residents in removing glass bottles and even boxes of empty cans from their gardens the following morning? The hotter the weather seems to be, canal-side, the more people must evacuate their sunshine, drinking down private residential laneways and gardens on their merry moonlit way home. Perhaps it's best not to encourage this behaviour. – Yours, etc, BEN McCABE, Dublin 6.
