Health for All
Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada
by Jane Philpott.
Knox member, Elsie Millerd, offers us this review of Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada, by Jane Philpott. Elsie is a registered nurse whose current role is as a parish nurse educator. She highly recommends this book.
Reviewed by Elsie Millerd
What would “health for all” in Canada entail? In her engaging book Dr. Jane Philpott presents a vision, framework and details for achieving a “primary health home” for all Canadians in their own neighbourhoods. Her desire to provide a system of health equity is driven by her longstanding commitment to justice or fairness. This passion arose from her experiences in observing the split of the haves and have-nots, through her medical practice in Niger and Canada, and her Christian faith which shaped her value of equity.
Philpott’s vocation is based on whole-person health which she carried into her political career as a Member of Parliament. She emphasizes the importance of spiritual well-being which provides hope, belonging, meaning and purpose. She indicates that spiritual well-being provides a key to mental wellness and resilience. In her book Philpott also stresses the importance of the social determinants of health. Finally, based on her own experiences in both health care and politics, she describes how political will and collaboration can be applied to overcome the barriers to bringing about the change needed in our struggling health care system.
This book provides a vision of a hopeful way forward in addressing the health care needs of our Canadian society. Since its publication, Dr. Jane Philpott has been appointed by the Ontario government to serve as chair of a new primary care action team with a mandate to connect every person in Ontario to primary health care within the next five years. This book not only provides the vision and framework with which she will lead but also should encourage us to pray for God’s guidance and stamina for the team as they strive to meet the goal.
