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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, August 8, 2012 · 6 Opinion & Letters The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 905-845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 905-631-6095 -- 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Canadian Circulation Audit Board Member THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Canadian Community Newspapers Association ATHENA Award Neil Oliver Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The OakvilleBeaver is a division of David Harvey Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief Daniel Baird Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor Riziero Vertolli Photography Director Sandy Pare Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution KIM MOSSMAN Circ. Manager @OakBeADonor When it comes to organ and tissue donation, the newest registration rates recently released by Trillium Gift of Life Network offer a good news/bad news scenario. First, the good news. Awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donation is at an all-time high with the provincial registration rate average rising slightly to 22 per cent. In the GTA, the rate is 13 per cent, also up slightly. The bad news is many Toronto suburbs have seen fewer than 10 per cent of residents register with the Be a Donor database. As well, the compelling awareness campaigns like the one by Ottawa woman Hélène Campbell, who made a friend of comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres while awaiting her lung transplant, stir interest in organ donation, but that interest doesn't seem to last much after its initial peak. Keeping the issue in the forefront and getting Ontarians to register is an ongoing battle. Ronnie Gavsie, Trillium's CEO, said, "It takes 116,000 new registrants to move that provincial needle one per cent." In the last three months, 66,000 Ontarians have registered, 11,000 in the GTA. There also remains confusion about the registering procedure. Many people believe that signing a driver's licence and carrying the card in a wallet is good enough. In fact, that method has been obsolete for some time. Registering is the only way to make your wishes known and it is important to let your family know of your desire to be a donor. One donor can save up to eight lives with organs and enhance up to 75 lives with tissue. As of July 24, there were 1,523 people awaiting those life-saving organ transplants in Ontario. In Oakville, a group of local residents and politicians has challenged residents to be organ donors and save lives. The group includes organ donation recipient Jennifer Malabar, Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn, Ward 2 Councillor Pam Damoff and Julie Pehar, whose family faced the painful decision to donate the organs of a loved one. In early July they launched the `Oakville Be a Donor' campaign. They were at the local Carousel of Nations in Kerr Village, Canada Day festivities in Bronte and Midnight Madness in downtown Oakville in late July. Oakville residents can register as part of the Oakville challenge by visiting www.beadonor.ca/campaign-532. Residents can follow the Oakville Be A Donor campaign on Twitter (@OakBeADonor) or go to www.beadonor.ca. To find out about donor registration visit www.giftoflife. on.ca or call 1-800-263-2833. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. A vision for the future of health care I have the good fortune to take part in many conversations about the future of Canada's healthcare system. I am an optimist by nature, so I certainly see the glass as more than half-full when it comes to the potential for improving how we deliver health care across this country. One of the gaps in today's dialogue on the future of the Canadian healthcare system is that we don't have a vision of what we want to achieve. I'd like to see our vision for health care to be that we will have the best healthcare system with the healthiest population in the world. Declaring this vision would leave no one in doubt as to what we want to achieve. Just as we promote Canada internationally as having the best financial system, shouldn't we want the same for our healthcare system, especially since we have all the requisites to be able to achieve this vision? The advantage of declaring a vision for Canada's healthcare system is that it would focus our reform efforts at every level of the system. At the same time, each health organization, provider, and ministry would have the responsibility of holding one another accountable for achieving this vision. Canadians -- as patients and taxpayers -- would have a direct role as well, by being more engaged and living healthier. To achieve this vision, we will need a `whole of society' approach to health. So, what can the Health Council do to create this vision and see it realized? First, we can strengthen our public reporting role and draw attention to the best performing systems, either in Canada or around the world. We can identify and promote innovative practices, showing how they work and how they can be implemented more extensively. We can bring greater clarity and transparency to any discussion on the important health care issues and suggest ways to address Letters to the editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. We were pleased with your mention of War Amps "Champs" Jamey Irwin and Erich Foerster, and their participation in the Oakville Lawn Bowling Club's annual CHAMP (the War Amps Child Amputee) Day recently. For more than 35 years, CHAMP has provided funding for artificial limbs, including the full cost of recreational limbs, for child amputees. It covers travel costs for fittings, counselling, and regional seminars where child amputees see the latest developments in artificial limbs. CHAMP seminars also provide a forum to share concerns and advice. Those wishing more information about CHAMP can contact The War Amps at 1-800-250-3030 or visit www.waramps.ca. Danita Chisholm, executive director, CHAMP Program CHAMP Day coverage was appreciated Letter to the editor them. And, we can encourage the evidencebased transformation that we all know needs to happen in the system. Finally, we should expect leadership and demand it from our ministers, health administrators, and clinicians. Without leadership, our system will remain complacent and the opportunities for improvement will remain unfulfilled. There is a way forward for our health-care system. It will require clear and specific direction from our leaders, a commitment to change, and a high degree of determination to achieve results. But it is possible. At the 2010 Winter Olympics, we both set a goal as a nation and set about achieving it because we knew we could. Now, it is time to do the same for our healthcare system and the Canadians it serves each and every day. John G. Abbott, CEO, Health Council of Canada