Federal Ministry of Health – Savvy Essay Writers | savvyessaywriters.net
Federal Ministry of Health – Savvy Essay Writers | savvyessaywriters.net
A briefing note is a short paper (2-3 pages) that quickly and effectively informs a decision-maker about an issue. A useful briefing note distills often complex information Letter to the Editor Example #1 Help Taiwan’s journalists gain access to WHO meetings As the world grapples with COVID-19, journalism, like other essential industries, faces an unprecedented challenge. And Taiwan’s journalists have an additional battle on their hands. The World Health Organization, scheduled to meet on May 18 and 19, has barred Taiwan’s journalists from attending this summit, due to political pressure from China, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the international media monitoring organization. RSF has urged Beijing to stop pressuring the WHO, and has asked WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres to put an immediate stop to this discriminatory practice. Canada is well-positioned to urge the WHO and the UN to open their meetings to all accredited journalists — including Taiwan’s — regardless of political considerations. Canada is co-chair with the United Kingdom of the Media Freedom Coalition, formed in 2019 to advocate for press freedom. Canada also supports efforts to promote media freedom through the Global Media Defence Fund. Canada’s voice will go a long way towards helping Taiwanese reporters, take their rightful place — along with other accredited journalists — at WHO and other UN meetings. Susan Korah, Ottawa Letter to the Editor Example #2 Outdoor rules should be common-sense-based I don’t think anyone should undermine the main message of public health regarding the measures needed to prevent the spread of SARS-Cov2. Physical distancing is reasonable, and hand-washing crucial. However, we do have to inject a little common sense into the discussion about outdoor activities. The virus does not form a cocoon around us, like Pigpen’s dust cloud, nor do we leave a trail behind us like a comet. It is transmitted by droplets, which dissipate in the breeze or drop to the ground quickly. The virus does not linger in the air. It is irrational to dissuade us from being outside. There is no risk of catching COVID-19 from passing someone on a trail or jogging behind someone. If this was of concern to public health, why open the trails along the canal or parks for walk-throughs? If these are opened, why not open Mer Bleu, the Greenbelt trails, and parks in general? Tell people to not cluster in groups, monitor if you must, but let father and son play tennis and siblings shoot baskets.
As for the punishments already meted out to those who have violated the rules, it seems ridiculous to fine someone for shooting baskets alone or sitting on a bench. When the punishment for shooting baskets alone is 10 times the fine for running a stop sign and more than double that of failing to stop for a school bus offloading students, we need to question whether these punishments are sensible. Steve Kravcik, Manotick Letter to the Editor Example #3 We need standards for personal support workers Re: Long-term care in Canada – What happens when the military goes home? May 1. Mohammed Adam makes a compelling case for much-needed change in Ontario’s long-term care. He advocates for necessary standardization of care and staffing, more home care and immunization and less profit-based ownership. These are excellent goals. What is missing however, and applicable to other vulnerable sectors like group homes too, is the regulation of all personal support workers. Although there is some standardization in regulated long-term care, none is mandated in profit-based agencies. PSWs give intimate care to our loved ones and, depending on where they work, may have little or no qualification, appropriate knowledge or skill, including infection control. There is no governing agency to report abuse or incompetence, so being fired in one place does not preclude an immediate hiring down the street as agencies are desperate for low-wage caregivers. For the many who make heroic efforts every day, there is very little in the way of educational opportunity, benefits and salary incentive. There also needs to be enough registered staff (RNs and RPNs) to assess, train and oversee the delegated care and to give the hands-on care where delegation is not appropriate. We need to get our feet of clay unstuck and marching in the right direction. Diane Stephenson, Ottawa
Briefing Note Example #1
MINISTRY OF HEALTH DECISION BRIEFING NOTE
File Number: 0167 Classification: Unclassified PREPARED FOR: Honourable Christine Elliott, Minister of Health – FOR DECISION TITLE: Limiting In-Hospital Indwelling Urinary Catheter Use and Length of Duration PURPOSE: To decrease rates of nosocomial urinary tract infections due to catheterization BACKGROUND: Leaving a urinary catheter (UC) in place without indication has been identified as one of “Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question” by the Society of Hospital Medicine and the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine. Annually, 1 in 217 patients acquire a nosocomial (originating in-hospital) infection, with urinary tract infections (UTIs) being found to be the most common infection type among Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program hospitals. Indwelling catheterization, which occurs in up to 25% of hospitalized patients, is attributable to 80% of all nosocomial UTIs. Despite the fact that catheterization is an essential component of many surgical procedures, UCs are frequently overused with a study conducted at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto reporting that 70% of catheterization occurred in the absence of an appropriate guideline-based reason. In addition, other studies have suggested that physicians are unaware that their patients have an UC in up to 40% of cases. As the daily risk of UTI development is estimated to be 7%, patients are at an increasingly high risk for developing an infection with each day that the UC is not removed. CURRENT STATUS: In 2019, Choosing Wisely Canada released a report titled “Lose the Tube” which provides hospital clinicians with simple tools, resources, and recommendations supported by evidence to help reduce unnecessary UC use in hospitals. While this report represents a positive step forward, this issue has not been an explicit focus at the provincial level. In order for observable change to occur, Ontario needs to take specific province-wide steps to address this important issue and improve the standard of practice regarding hospital catheterization. CONSIDERATIONS:
• Antimicrobial resistance is causing a rise in drug resistant UTI infections which require more complicated and expensive treatment.
• Patients who have a urinary catheter can act as reservoirs of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and are a source of antimicrobial-resistant infections in others.
• Publicly reported data that tracks and compares UTI infections in hospitals on a provincial level is not available in Ontario.
OPTIONS AND RATIONALE: Option 1: Maintain our current health system priorities for hospital patient safety in Ontario.
• Advantage: This is consistent with current Government of Ontario plans and would be the cheapest approach. Current priorities remain important and require continued attention to achieve set future targets.
• Disadvantage: This maintains the status quo, which has allowed UTIs to persist as the most common nosocomial infection among Canadian hospitals.
Option 2: Implement a catheter use checklist that all Ontario hospitals will be required to utilize and to publicly report on their compliance by March 2021. The checklist will be adapted based on the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s guidelines for appropriate indwelling UC placement.
• Advantage: This is a low-cost and relatively easy-to-implement solution that has proven to be a successful strategy in hospitals in the past. Checklists provide clinicians with a concise consolidation of a large body of knowledge in one simple document. Furthermore, checklists have been proven to be effective at reducing medical mistakes and leading to improved patient outcomes in a wide range of medical fields.
• Disadvantage: The quality level of conducting the checklist may vary across institutions and it may be hard to ensure that this option will be performed as-per-standard.
Option 3: Publish a report outlining the issue of unnecessary urinary catheter use in hospitals from a provincial perspective by adapting the Choosing Wisely Canada report to Ontario’s needs. Provide evidence-based recommendations which provincial hospitals will be encouraged to implement.
• Advantage: This action will bring attention to this problem and provide researchers, policymakers, as well as healthcare workers with province-specific statistics and information.
• Disadvantage: The information in this report may not be substantively different from the Canada-wide report; therefore, the impact may be limited.
RECOMMENDATION: Option 2 is recommended. Name Director, Ontario Infection Control Date
Briefing Note Example #2
MINISTRY OF HEALTH DECISION BRIEFING NOTE
File Number: 0001 Classification: Unclassified PREPARED FOR: Honourable Christine Elliott, Minister of Health
• FOR DECISION TITLE: ONTARIO HEALTH TEAMS: FUNDING TO IMPLEMENT PATIENT-FACING DIGITAL HEALTH TOOLS FOR SENIORS PURPOSE: To provide funding that supports Ontario Health Teams’ (OHTs) implementation of patient-facing digital health (DH) tools with seniors. BACKGROUND
• On June 6, 2019, the Ministry of Health (MOH) enacted the Connecting Care Act, 2019. This formally began a phased approach to establish OHTs and Ontario Health.
• Some key MOH requirements for OHTs are to: • Identify a population on which to focus first year efforts (i.e., Year 1 populations). • Ensure 10-15% of their Year 1 population uses patient-facing DH tools (e.g., virtual
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