A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of factual debates. Let’s talk about transparency this week. It is one of those words that is thrown in health discussions. Politicians promise. Hospital managers confess it. Insurance companies advertise it. But when ordinary people look for reliable information about their own health, we touch a wall, there is silence or confusion.
Take something as simple and important as our own medical records. In Canada we have been talking about universal digital access for years. Yet in many provinces it is still amazingly difficult to get a picture of your health history.
In Ontario there are confusing tools, portals and incoherent systems, and even after years of public indignation we still have no good access to our data. Most people still call around, wait for answers or even pay costs to see their own information. And it is not that sharing personal or sensitive information is not possible. We can check our bank balance in an instant, but not the results of a blood test taken last week.
There are better places. In British Columbia, the Health Gateway app residents, imaging reports, imaging reports, immunisations and medicines. Updates appear within a few days. This is proof that transparency is possible when it wants to exist. It also emphasizes the inequality of a patchwork system where some Canadians have open access to their records and others stay in the dark.
#information #hidden #healthcare