This is what misogyny looks like: Paps and women’s health

This is what misogyny looks like.

A lot of you may have heard me use the word “misogyny” before and were either confused or found it too harsh for what I was describing.  Yes, misogyny basically means “hatred for women” (as opposed to Philogyny- the fondness, love or admiration of women).

Yes, misogyny might sound a bit harsh, but so are the consequences of it.

Health minister acknowledges ‘disconnect’ over Duffy, Wallin holding OHIP cards

SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT.—Health Minister Deb Matthews says there is a “disconnect” between what Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin — both OHIP card holders — are telling the Senate and the health ministry.

The senators claims residency in P.E.I. and Saskatchewan respectively yet hold health cards in Ontario, which entitles them to full coverage.

Back patient Sevan Hajinian shutout in Ontario but finds relief in New York

On Sunday — to celebrate Armenian Christmas — Sevan Hajinian intends to walk into Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in east Toronto and give thanks to those who made a potentially life-changing back surgery possible.

The province of Ontario will not be among them.

Friends and supporters, with the help of the church, raised $120,000 for a Dec. 4 surgery in New York City, which Hajinian says five Canadian spinal surgeons would not touch and the Ontario Health Insurance Plan would not fund.

Second senior says she had cataract surgery without sedation at Oakville Trafalgar Hospital

Prone to anxiety attacks, 65-year-old Fern Cooper suffered a particularly bad one a couple of weeks ago. She was undergoing cataract surgery on her right eye at Oakville Trafalgar Hospital, but without sedation.

She felt like she was suffocating while covered by a surgical drape sheet, with only an opening for her eye, she says. Trying to get more air under the sheet, she kept raising an arm. An anesthetist kept putting it back down.

Woman says she was denied sedation for cataract surgery because of OHIP fee cuts

When Sharon Phillips was wheeled into the operating room at Oakville Trafalgar Hospital on Monday, she was prepped and ready to undergo cataract surgery.

When her ophthalmologist was about to start the procedure, 65-year-old Phillips nervously stopped him with a question: “Wait a minute, where’s the sedation?”

She was shocked to find out there wouldn’t be any, and then angered when reportedly told that it was because of recent OHIP fee cuts to “conscious sedation,” a procedure that involves an anesthetist giving intravenous medication for pain, anxiety or comfort. Patients stay awake but are dozy.

Cuts to OHIP services could include some planned C-section births

Taxpayers will soon find they have to pay for more health services now covered by OHIP as Ontario sheds its $16 billion deficit — with possible limits on planned caesarean sections, Health Minister Deb Matthews says.

There must be evidence that medical tests and procedures improve health outcomes for patients or they will be gone, as was the case with widespread vitamin D testing, Matthews told reporters Wednesday.

“If there isn’t evidence to support a procedure or test, we don’t want to pay for it,” she said on the way into a cabinet meeting. “Sometimes that will mean delisting.”

The vitamin D tests are now covered for patients only in rare circumstances and the province has saved $66 million.

Matthews cited “pretty interesting research” that more caesarean sections are performed in certain urban areas of Ontario than others.