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Quebec
MONTREAL —
Merging or masticating?
Though Quebec's community health centres (CLSCs) are
said to be the envy of the nation, Premier Jean Charest's
government announced its plan to merge 54 of these facilities
into 12 centres or 'command posts'. The posts will combine
the forces of CLSCs, residential and longterm care facilities
and community hospitals with the hopes of reducing the
number of patients who visit the ER and aim to treat
more patients in their homes. Judging from a noisy recent
demonstration in downtown Montreal by Quebec unionized
health workers, not everyone is pleased with the change.
DB
Hot
Spot
New Brunswick
FREDERICTON
— Hotly
debated sex ed New Brunswick's Minister of Education,
Madeleine DubÄ, announced recently that the government
will revise its controversial sex-education program,
bowing to vigorous pressure from some parents, who clamoured
for more emphasis on abstinence. Parents were concerned
about the inclusion of discussions about mutual masturbation,
anal sex and sexual pleasure in the curriculum. Supporters
of the curriculum, like University of New Brunswick
Psychology Chair Sandra Byers, argue that sex ed must
be explicit, otherwise young people will conclude that
practices such as oral sex and anal sex don't count
as 'real sex'. SB
Nova
Scotia
HALIFAX —
Morning after pill
arrives Barbara Clow, executive director of the
Atlantic Centre of Excellence in Women's Health, is
mostly pleased with Health Canada's recommendation that
the drug levonorgestrel, (Plan B) be made available
without a prescription. Ms Clow is happy that Nova Scotia
women will have access to Plan B without having to see
a doctor, but she'd like to see the final barrier —
that of having to consult with a pharmacist — removed.
SB
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Prince
Edward Island
CHARLOTTETOWN
— Mexican
nurses feel at home Jannett Lanto Salazar is
one of seven student nurses from NAFTA partner state
Mexico who came to the Island recently to learn about
our Canadian health system and even take in some Canadian
culture like ice hockey, curling and skating. During
their trip the nurses visited a host of facilities,
including the UPEI Health Centre, the Beach Grove Home
and the Souris Hospital, where they were impressed with
both the technology and the staff's effort to make the
hospitals feel homey. "Canadian public hospitals are
much like private hospitals in Mexico," remarked Ms
Salazar. "Patients receive a high level of healthcare
[the] difference is that in Canada the service is free
and in Mexico it's expensive." BW
Newfoundland
ST JOHN'S —
Health portfolio
hits close to home Newfoundland Health Minister
John Ottenheimer had to take a leave of absence from
his busy portfolio after taking ill on a flight from
St John's to Gander late last month. The minister, who
was suffering from the flu, briefly lost consciousness,
which his doctors have now attributed to a cardiac arrhythmia.
He was hospitalized and had a temporary pacemaker implanted
before being transported by air ambulance back to St
John's that night. The minister then underwent a second
procedure to implant a permanent pacemaker. Mr Openheimer
was in Gander to meet residents protesting a decision
not to fund a new cancer centre in the area. DSS
The
Territories
WHITEHORSE —
Caught in
Kafkaesque medical nightmare A recent unanimously
supported motion in the Yukon legislature will address
the current crisis of nine-year-old Mackenzie Olsen.
The First Nations youngster suffers from a rare disease
called Hurler-Schele Syndrome. Until recently he was
enrolled in a clinical trial and was receiving nearly
$17,000 per week in enzyme replacement therapy to keep
him alive. Now the trial's ended and so have the free
treatments. For now private donations are keeping him
going. Yukon leaders are urging federal Health Minister
Ujjal Dosanjh to reconsider funding the drug treatments
on an exception basis. SB
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