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Quebec
Hospitals get equipped
QUEBEC CITY —
As the province waits for the long-promised and chronically
delayed "superhospitals" to get into gear, Quebec's
aging hospitals will get a much needed $117-million
blast of state-of-the-art medical equipment, reported
the Gazette. Health minister Philippe Couillard
said the new machines, including basic equipment like
defibrillators as well as high-tech gear like linear
accelerators, will help cut wait lists for surgery and
cancer therapy. More than a third of the new investment,
which is supported by federal cash, will go to 17 Montreal-area
hospitals. DB
New
Brunswick
Another blemish
on the NB landscape
GRAND LAKE —
One of Canada's most scenic provinces is in the news
again for another pollution-related health danger —
and this time it's not Agent Orange in the spotlight.
Soil samples taken in Grand Lake, a community roughly
40 km east of Fredericton, reveal above-normal arsenic
levels, according to reports from the province's Environment
Department. Health officials say the positive samples
do not necessarily mean there's a risk for nearby residents,
but they say further testing will be done. The positive
samples were found near the province's only coal-fired
power plant, operated by Crown corporation NB Power,
though the source of the contamination hasn't been determined.
SB
Nova
Scotia
Moonlighting MDs
leave NS stranded
HALIFAX —
Nova Scotia is starting to see the results of paying
less than some other provinces to its ER doctors, as
non-contract physicians are bolting to higher-paying
locales to make some extra money in between shifts.
Nova Scotia ER physicians typically earn about $130
per hour, whereas the same job in Saint John, NB, pays
$160 per hour and up to $200 per hour in Ontario. "I
don't think that necessarily... we want to be the highest
[paid] in the country," Dr Mike Howlett of Truro said
to the CBC, "but somewhere in the middle is what it
takes to keep people interested in staying here." PL
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Prince
Edward Island
MMR shots welcome
college kids
CHARLOTTETOWN
— As they settle in to their dorms for another
school year, PEI college students will receive a booster
immunization of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
vaccine. Island chief health officer Dr Heather Morrison
says that post-secondary students have an increased
risk of contracting the diseases because most have received
just one MMR shot. The shots will be offered to faculty
and students at UPEI and Holland College who were born
after 1970. PL
Newfoundland
Pay-to-stay strategy
pays off
ST JOHN'S —
How can provinces entice new family medicine grads to
practise near home? Money, according to the Newfoundland
& Labrador Department of Health. The department
recently awarded 27 bursaries, valued at $25,000 each,
to Memorial University medical students and residents
as part of their $6 million strategy to keep family
physicians in the province. For each year the new FP
receives the incentive, he or she must agree to practise
one year in an "area in need." Health Minister Ross
Wiseman said Newfoundland's retention rates are improving:
recent statistics show that 80% of medical graduates
that have been recruited are still practising in the
province five years after graduation — a much higher
percentage than most other provinces, save Quebec. DSS
The
North
Médecins
au Nunavut
IQALUIT —
Nunavut and Quebec signed an agreement in mid-August
to improve French-language medical services for Nunavut
francophones. Under the new deal doctors from Nunavik,
Quebec, will visit Nunavut to help out. "We always struggle
in trying to provide doctors, for example, that can
speak French," Nunavut premier Paul Okalik told the
CBC. Nunavut's francophone community accounts for just
1.5% of the population. HY
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