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New Brunswick
MONCTON
— Number
cruncher course The province has allotted over
$300,000 for a new Health Information Management course,
to be taught at the local community college. The two-year
program, the only one of its kind in Atlantic Canada,
will supply the province with much-needed health information
specialists who collect crucial data for the health
ministry on the number of patients using the healthcare
system. JC
FREDERICTON
— Hey,
we're busy too The local fire chief is concerned
that a four-year-old policy of having fire fighters
respond to emergency medical calls is being misused.
Chief Philip Toole said fire fighters are responding
to many calls that are medical in nature, but couldn't
be called emergencies. He said that a lot of the calls
to places like nursing homes where medical staff is
available should be screened before they reach the FD.
JC
Nova Scotia
HALIFAX
— Country
cousins take it slow Urban hospitals in Nova
Scotia burst at the seams while rural hospitals sit
half-empty. In Halifax, occupancy rates exceeding 90%
have created "very limited flexibility in being able
to deal with the next person who walks through the door,"
says David Rippey, senior medical advisor to the deputy
health minister. The future may hold "a change in role"
of rural facilities, such as downgrading some hospitals
to health clinics. BH
HALIFAX
— Slim
pickins A provincial government backbencher,
who two years ago suggested a flat tax on junk food,
now wants Nova Scotians who meet a target weight-for-height
measure to get tax money back. John Chataway was responding
to a recent national health study ranking Nova Scotians
among the fattest Canadians. Critics point out that
many obese Nova Scotians are low-income earners. "You're
sort of bashing the poor," says Katherine Fierlbeck,
a health policy expert at Dalhousie University. BH
Prince Edward Island
STRATFORD
— Bio
money pit A bankrupt biomedical company is being
blamed for the PEI Lending Agency reporting its first
losses since being established in 1998. The agency said
in March that it lost $2.2 million when Island Critical
Care, which received millions to produce a medical device
which measures pulse and oxygen levels in the blood,
went out of business. But the company ran into trouble
getting its national certification and went bankrupt
before ever getting the device to market. BM
CHARLOTTETOWN
— Quit
B4 U start PEI physicians are volunteering to
speak to Grade six students across the province about
the dangers of tobacco use. In mid-March, the Medical
Society of PEI noted that the Island is the only province
east of Manitoba that has not banned tobacco in pharmacies.
The effort to have pharmacies voluntarily remove tobacco
has failed with 19 pharmacies continuing to sell tobacco
products. BM
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Newfoundland
ST
JOHN'S — Filthy
lucre for research Research will be carried out
on psoriatic arthritis and the genetic basis of deafness
among five Newfoundland projects recently awarded $2.1
million in federal funding. The money is part of a $179
million federal health research investment. The projects,
to be conducted at Memorial University, also include
research on hepadnavirus pathogenicity in a woodchuck
model of hepatitis B, central control of energy homeostasis,
and amino acid metabolism. DSS
ST
JOHN'S — You
gotta network The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical
Association is considering establishing its own electronic
network for doctors through a partnership with the private
sector. This will be in addition to an electronic pharmacy
network the province has been working on which is expected
to cost $15 million and take about three years to fully
implement. DSS
Yukon
WHITEHORSE
— From
bad to worse Government and ambulance workers
just don't mix. The workers claim that the government's
plan to transfer emergency medical services is jeopardizing
their jobs. The guvvies say there's nothing to worry
about. Craig Battaglia, a union representative of the
Yukon's Ambulance Service, has another bone to pick.
He says Health Minister Peter Jenkins wasted a whack
of cash by buying two ambulances that are just too big
and difficult to manoeuvre in the ambulance bay. JH
Nunavut
IQALUIT
— Ms
Brown, you have a lovely health portfolio Following
the recent territorial election and cabinet selection,
Nunavut has a new minister of health, Levinia Brown.
Ms Brown, a former mayor of the Hudson Bay town of Rankin
Inlet, is also Nunavut's deputy premier. She says social
reform, economic development and community empowerment
will go hand-in-hand to improve the overall health and
well-being of Nunavut's residents. Ed Picco, minister
of health for the past five years, now has the education
portfolio. JG
Northwest Territories
YELLOWKNIFE
— Cut
the cap Soaring healthcare costs have NWT premier
Joe Handley threatening to end its healthcare deal with
the feds. In the early 70s the territory took over the
responsibility of health costs in a deal struck with
Ottawa. That deal is now costing the territory to the
tune of $28 million due to caps on funding. The NWT
claims that funding levels are too low, especially given
the tremendous rise in costs in recent years. CS
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