THE MEDICAL RECORD: CANADA'S DRUG CRISIS

Marissa Lennox is filling in for Libby Znaimer today. She is joined by Dr. Fahad Razak, a General Internist and epidemiologist at Unity Health Toronto, Dr. Alisa Naiman, family physician and the founder and medical director of The Medical Station in Toronto, and Dr. Malcolm Moore, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

This week: we shed light on the scope of the drug crisis here in Canada with over 30,000 individuals losing their lives to drug overdoses in the past 7 years. Earlier this year, we learned that Toronto Public Health is partnering with Unity Health Toronto and University Health Network hospitals to implement additional supervised injection sites. But, is this the right approach that our healthcare system should be taking to address the drug crisis among its other strategies? Meanwhile, Sunnybrook and Michael Garron Hospitals will be helping to tackle the surgery backlog by performing hip or knee replacement operations over weekends. The plan is to do as many as 1,300 over he next year by doing those surgeries on Saturdays and Sundays. And, tick season is upon us with the arrival of Spring and these pests pose the very real threat of Lyme's disease. Our health experts weigh in on the latest.

PUBLIC SERVICE WORKER STRIKE KICKS IN TODAY

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada's strike has officially started as of 12:01 am today. As many as 155,000 are off the job after the union and Ottawa failed to reach a tentative agreement on Tuesday evening. A part of those striking are employees at the CRA. Franco weighs in on why he feels PSAC is out of touch and how their demands for a pay raise, if fulfilled, would cost taxpayers $9.3 billion.

TORONTO ENDS BACKYARD CHICKEN FARMING PILOT PROGRAM OVER CONCERNS OF AVIAN FLU

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Dr. Tim Sly, an epidemiologist at Toronto Metropolitan University and Sarah Doucette a former city councillor and a three-year participant in the pilot program of backyard chicken farming.

The City of Toronto is ending its backyard chicken farming pilot project over concerns of the threat of the Avian flu. We bring in our epidemiologist to weigh in on just how serious of a threat the disease actually is to humans. And, we ask our listeners: have you benefitted from this program?

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