THE CHOICE between expanding health coverage and controlling healthcare costs is a false choice based on a false assumption: that resources committed to healthcare are used efficiently and effectively. The mistaken notion makes budgeting the key decision and masks a much better alternative. There is ample evidence that better care could be provided to more people at lower cost if care delivery were organized in a more sophisticated fashion.

In this extremely pertinent article, two major professional, Steven J. Spear from MIT and Donald M. Berwick from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (Cambridge) explains that the health care system in the States, are obsolete - badly delivered and extremely costly for the system itself as well as for patients.

Ignoring basic hygiene measures poses threat to public health in Quebec and throughout the world

USA: A study carried out in 1,256 American hospitals revealed that 87% had not yet implemented in whole or in part basic infection prevention measures. According to the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety survey (October 2007) only 35.6% of hospitals followed recommendations for basic hand cleanliness.

Several recent studies conducted in France and the Netherlands have shown that pigs may be carriers of a methicillan-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain that can be passed on to humans. In the Netherlands, 23% of pig farmers and other workers (such as veterinarians) coming into contact with pigs were carriers of the porcine strain and some of them became infected.