A 'One-stop shop' for all your medical needs

by Camila  Acosta

Set up at a new location closer to the heart of our community, Polyclinic Medical Centre has opened its doors - promising a leading-edge medical experience.

Seeking medical help can often be a stressful and time-consuming task, but it doesn’t have to be. At a short walk from Finch and Dufferin, the Medical Centre is ready to work, and thoroughly equipped to deal with our community’s needs.

“It is a bigger, newer facility,” said Dr. Lew Pliamm, head of the practice, adding that our community now houses “the largest medical mall in Canada”

The new facility offers advanced and comprehensive care. A single location provides two dental and sleep clinics, equipped with CPAP therapy. Just down the building’s hall, two medical labs offer multiple tests, such as ultrasounds and ECG. A fully-equipped rehabilitation institute has also opened its doors, and will soon be followed by a North York Endoscopy Centre. Close to the building’s entrance, there is a foot care clinic, next to a fully-stocked pharmacy.

Eleven family doctors are available by appointment and walk-in, and are accepting new patients. They are seeing patients six days a week, and at extended hours.

Polyclinic Medical Centre also values accessibility. Located at 2 Champagne Drive, the nearest bus stop is steps away from its main doors. For those arriving by car, the clinic offers five hundred parking spots, free of charge.

The new and improved Polyclinic provides us advanced care at the heart of our community. Its new specialists and environment promise to centralize our health care needs in one location - as Dr. Pliamm calls it, a “one-stop shop.”

Local activists make their voices heard in NYC

by Yasmin ParodiIn a desperate attempt to slow the rise in global temperature, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called world leaders to the 2014 Climate Summit on Sept. 23rd. He urged leaders to bring forward bold announcements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.More than 400,000 people joined the People’s Climate March in New York City, the largest ever recorded on this issue. The streets near Central Park began to fill early Sunday morning, with individuals from all walks of life, from indigenous leaders to interfaith groups, scientists, students, families, agriculture workers and celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo - to show world leaders that the public is united in it's call for solutions.2,646 events occurred simultaneously in 162 countries around the world. 300 people from Toronto rode overnight busses organized by Toronto350.org, a local climate action group.Connor Allaby, a local resident of the Jane and Finch community said: “the political response has been negligible”.“I think the message of system change not climate change is important to convey, because it speaks to social as well as environmental concerns, in how the system exploits people and the environment for profit,” Allaby said.Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, did not attend the summit although he attended other meeting in New York that week. "I think so many Canadians are here because we're so fed up with the way things are going in Canada. We are the source of the tar sands, which has just been such a destructive project for the climate and for local environment and indigenous people," said Aaron Saad, a graduate student and part of the group from Toronto who attended the march.

It's time to implement a HealthSafe program

by Tom RakocevicImagine going for a medical examination and contracting an illness from your visit. It has happened here in the GTA.A Toronto Star analysis of inspection data posted by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) showed a staggering 1 in 7 clinics in Ontario did not meet inspection standards since 2011 (reported November 2, 2014 – Toronto Star).The newspaper also revealed that serious illnesses such as Hepatitis C and meningitis have been contracted in Toronto health clinics, although this level of information was not readily available online to the public.To find out when your medical clinic was last inspected and the result of the inspection, go to http://www.cpso.on.ca/Public-Register/Out-of-Hospital-Premises-Listing and search for it by name in the list.This inspection information was made public by the CPSO due to a new bylaw it passed on January 31, 2013. Although this was a good move by the CPSO, many seniors and individuals who are not comfortable with computers and the internet have a barrier to accessing this important information.Toronto Public Health regularly inspects and reports on food establishments as part of its food safety program called DineSafe. The results of their inspection are posted via the green/yellow/red signs you have seen at restaurants and other food establishments.In February 2013, I worked with Councillor Anthony Perruzza in drafting a motion to Toronto City Council requesting the CPSO to “make their inspection data public and implement a system that would make the results viewable both as a hard copy at the location and online (similar to DineSafe Program for restaurants).” This motion passed in the Council meeting on February 20-21, 2014, but the CPSO has not implemented this worthy initiative.To view DineSafe inspection results online, go to http://www.toronto.ca/health/dinesafe/#inspectionResult. Believe me, it will not be the last time you visit that page. For some of you, it may feel a little like watching a video on how hot dogs are made. Sorry.The CPSO could learn a lot from Toronto’s DineSafe program. In addition to providing inspection results in an easy to understand format at the establishment, DineSafe appears to provide more overall inspection details, and places are visited multiple times a year rather than once every few years.I continue to advocate for better health, which means visiting health care professionals on a regular basis. In turn, health care professionals must ensure that their premises are clean and safe. With 1 in 7 health clinics not making the grade on initial inspections, there may be some cause for concern. As well, clinics need to be regularly visited to ensure proper procedures have been followed. It is time to implement a “HealthSafe” program so health inspection results are easy to see just like they are when we visit our favourite restaurant.

Election results a mix of old and new

by David RosThe recent Toronto municipal elections have brought about some changes to the political landscape in this city as well as in Downsview.While the city has a new mayor in John Tory, voters have, for the most part, elected to maintain the status quo on city council. Of the 44 seats on council, only 8 will be filled by councillors who were not city councillors during the last term. However, one of those 8 seats belongs to outgoing mayor Rob Ford, who was elected councillor in Ward 2 where he previously served from 1999-2010, and the majority of the new councillors were elected after the previous incumbents had decided not to seek re-election.Downsview voters also chose to maintain the status quo with incumbents, Anthony Perruzza and Maria Augimeri re-elected to city council by comfortable margins in wards 8 and 9.Perruzza, who defeated Arthur Smitherman by more than 7,000 votes was first elected to city council in 2006 and had previously served as a trustee on the Metro Toronto Separate School Board, as a member of North York City Council and as an MPP for York West, will now enter his third term as the representative for Ward 8.Augimeri, who defeated Gus Cusimano by more than 2,000 votes, served as chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has been involved in municipal politics since 1982, when she was first elected as a school board trustee, and has been both a North York and Toronto city councillor since 1985 will once again represent Ward 9.While Downsview voters elected to maintain the status quo on city council, the same can not be said for the public school board trustee race.Tiffany Ford was elected as Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee in Ward 4 after long-time trustee Stephnie Payne, announced her retirement. Ford, who defeated Matias de Dovitiis to earn her seat on the board, is a marketing and communications professional who grew up in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood and has previously sat on the board of directors of Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC), Promoting Education and Community Health (PEACH), as well as many other local community organizations.Patrizia Bottoni was re-elected for a second term as Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustee, defeating Marina Laccona. Bottoni was first elected as part of a wave of new trustees in 2010 after the board was put under provincial receivership in 2008 following a spending scandal.CITY WARD COUNCIL 8Anthony Perruzza 8,705

Arthur Smitherman 1,326

Suzanne Narain 852

Princess Boucher 524

Antonio Vescio 431

Thomas Barclay 406

City Council Ward 9:

Maria Augimeri 6,373

Gus Cusimano 4,230

Anthony Fernando 3,367

Danny Quattrociocchi 562

Ances Hercules 248

Wilson Basantes 130

The Ford Factor

by Amoy WynterIf you voted “Ford” in the last election you are a part of the majority in the Downsview area.Even though Doug Ford lost the election with a respectable 34 per cent support, he was favourite in Ward 7 (66 per cent support), Ward 8 (61 per cent support) and Ward 9 (62 per cent support) showing the great divide in opinions across our city. The Ford brand was apparently so strong this election that a number of candidates with the Ford name had successful campaigns including Rob Ford winning his old Council seat, Michael Ford (the outgoing Mayor’s nephew who had changed his last name from Stirpe to Ford) beating a seasoned incumbent Trustee, Tiffany Ford winning an open Trustee seat here in Downview, and Russ Ford who came very close to beating a long-time Councillor in Etobicoke.As a young adult who is deeply interested in politics, I spent a great deal of time discussing the election with my peers (mainly other young adults in the Jane-Finch area). There was a great deal of disenfranchisement for many, stating “politicians are all the same” or “my vote doesn’t matter” and showing no interest in voting. For those who expressed interest in the election, the conversation was all about the mayor. For them, the election was a referendum on his track record even though it was his brother running for the big job.I was amazed at how people would simply summarize the entire election and the candidates themselves into catch phrases like “he/she is for the little guy”, “he/she will tax us to death” or “he/she hates this/that”. For the majority of people I spoke to, they were unable to list anyone’s platform even though they claimed they were very familiar with who they were voting for.

Mailboxes disappearing in Downsview

by Howard MoscoeLast year Canada Post announced that it will be discontinuing door to door mail service, and it has been true to its word. Within the next two weeks, the conversion to community mail boxes will begin at 18 or 19 locations across the country with door to door service withdrawn from some 26,000 homes. In Ontario, Oakville will be the first city hit. The communities affected so far, have been targeted as easier hits because some of the population in these locations have already been serviced by community mail boxes. The date when we will lose our door to door service in Downsview has not yet been determined, but it will be gone by 2019. My letter carrier suggested that it will likely be out of service within about two years. The post office has whined about operating losses as the reason for cutting service and along with that, the need to cut 8,000 jobs. That now rings hollow because in the second quarter of 2014 Canada Post made a net profit of $67 million, up from a loss of $50 million the year before. Last month, I walked over to the letter box at the corner of Catford Rd., and Derrydown Rd., to post a letter. The box was gone. I then hoofed it over to the next closest letter box to my house, on Hucknall Rd., near Madron Cres., and that box was also missing. It would appear that not only is Canada Post cutting back on door to door delivery of mail, they are also cutting back on mail box locations. Those two boxes have been in place for some 50 years. So now that I’m a senior, I can not walk to post a letter, but must drive. What about those seniors who can’t drive?I contacted Canada Post to ask about other mail boxes that have been taken out of service in Downsview. John Hamilton, a spokesman for Canada Post said that the organization doesn't keep any data on specific communities.“Any mail induction point has to be visited and cleared five days a week,” Hamilton said. “While the number of street letter boxes has remained relatively constant we have moved or removed some that were being used infrequently.” He then went on about how Canada Post was losing money and the need for efficiencies to be created at the local level. Here is what I don’t understand. If each of the new community mail boxes has a slot that will accept outgoing mail, one wonders why they couldn’t simply wait until the community mailboxes were installed before they began to pull existing letter boxes out of service? If you have noticed a letter box missing in your area, email me the location. (hmoscoe@gmail.com). Hamilton said that anyone who thinks Canada Post has overlooked important information when making the decision to remove the mailboxes can call customer service at 1-866-607-6301 and they will look into it.If you decide to complain, be prepared to wait a long time on the telephone and push a lot of buttons to get to talk to a real person. Be persistent, and if you are successful in getting a box put back in our neighbourhood, let us know so we can celebrate your success. The Canada Post Corporation Act in 1981, which separated the postal service from the Canadian Government, was supposed to guarantee basic postal service to every Canadian wherever they might live. The problem is that it failed to clearly define what basic meant.