Health

Canadian Health Coalition’s Steven Staples, seen in an undated handout photo, says he is not surprised that the Nordorthopaedics Clinic in Kaunas, Lithuania, reported a 50 per cent increase in Canadian patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Steven Staples

Canada’s surgery backlog heightens inequities in health care: advocacy group

Lithuanian clinic has reported 50 per cent increase in Canadian patients during pandemic

 

Indigenous families are grossly overrepresented in birth alerts in B.C. File photo of reporter Anna McKenzie and her daughter taken by Captured Memories Photography. Bayleigh Marelj, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Indigenous lawsuit seeks damages from B.C. for disproportionate birth alerts

Suit alleges alerts motivated by discriminatory and harmful stereotypes about parenting capabilities

 

Sharon Durham pictured in Edmonton on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. Durham’s surgery for a rare cancer in her face was cancelled in Alberta during the peak of the province’s fourth wave. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson.

‘I put life on hold:’ Woman who had delayed surgery in Alberta says she lost her nose

Alberta cancelled non-essential surgeries in late September

 

Sheila Malcolmson (right), Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, takes a tour of the newly opened Wellness and Recovery Centre on York on Nov. 5 with Shayne Williams (left), CEO of Lookout Housing and Health Society and Dr. Shannon Waters (middle), Medical Health Officer for the Cowichan region. (Robert Barron/Citizen)

Wellness and Recovery Centre officially opens in Duncan

Overdose Prevention Centre on Trunk Road closed on Oct. 31

Sheila Malcolmson (right), Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, takes a tour of the newly opened Wellness and Recovery Centre on York on Nov. 5 with Shayne Williams (left), CEO of Lookout Housing and Health Society and Dr. Shannon Waters (middle), Medical Health Officer for the Cowichan region. (Robert Barron/Citizen)
A new map is available online to search radon exposure rates in various communities around B.C., to highlight the importance of indoor radon testing. (BC Centre for Disease Control image)

Radon testing advised for all B.C. homes to reduce cancer risks

New interactive map estimates local health risk due to indoor radon levels in B.C.

A new map is available online to search radon exposure rates in various communities around B.C., to highlight the importance of indoor radon testing. (BC Centre for Disease Control image)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau puts on a mask as he listens to Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam speak via video during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, in Ottawa, Friday, March 12, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

COVID-19 spending spike poses challenge for Canada’s post-pandemic health systems

Spending surge is expected to reach a record $308 billion in 2021

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau puts on a mask as he listens to Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam speak via video during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, in Ottawa, Friday, March 12, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
A settlement has been approved in lawsuit lodged against an Ottawa fertility doc alleged to have used the wrong sperm, including his own, in multiple instances. (pixabay)

$13 million settlement approved with fertility doc alleged to have used wrong sperm

Judged has signed off on the settlement in the class-action case against Dr. Norman Barwin

A settlement has been approved in lawsuit lodged against an Ottawa fertility doc alleged to have used the wrong sperm, including his own, in multiple instances. (pixabay)
John Haggie, Newfoundland and Labrador minister of health and community services responds to a reporter’s questions in Winnipeg, Thursday, June 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Suspected cyberattack in N.L. hits ‘brain’ of province’s health-care system

SItuation leads to cancellation of several non-emergency medical appointments and procedures

John Haggie, Newfoundland and Labrador minister of health and community services responds to a reporter’s questions in Winnipeg, Thursday, June 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
Jessica Lewinski (left), executive director at Literacy Now Cowichan, gave a $150 grant to Chris Rafuse (right), executive director at the Cowichan Brain Injury Society, to purchase books and other materials for the new Let’s Talk Aphasia program. (Vi Moffatt/Citizen)

Cowichan Brain Injury Society receives grant for stroke program

Literacy Now Cowichan contributes $150 to help support reading for stroke survivors

  • Nov 1, 2021
Jessica Lewinski (left), executive director at Literacy Now Cowichan, gave a $150 grant to Chris Rafuse (right), executive director at the Cowichan Brain Injury Society, to purchase books and other materials for the new Let’s Talk Aphasia program. (Vi Moffatt/Citizen)
Brian Wise is hoping his case will be revisited and he will be given access to the treatment that once worked for him. (Jessica Peters/ Abbotsford News)

Mismanaged forgotten: Abbotsford man hoping for help after decades of pain

‘I don’t know if I want to keep fighting, just to stay alive’

Brian Wise is hoping his case will be revisited and he will be given access to the treatment that once worked for him. (Jessica Peters/ Abbotsford News)
A coalition of front-line health-care workers have asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fast-track proposed legislative amendments to grant paid sick leave to federally regulated workers. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits a vaccine clinic in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Health-care workers demand Trudeau fast track paid sick-leave policy

Decent Work and Health Network says PM’s promise do so within 100 days not fast enough

A coalition of front-line health-care workers have asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fast-track proposed legislative amendments to grant paid sick leave to federally regulated workers. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits a vaccine clinic in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Health workers screen people for tuberculosis and leprosy in Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest slums, in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Tuberculosis deaths rise for 1st time in years, due to COVID-19

U.N. health agency said 1.5 million people worldwide died of the bacterial disease last year

Health workers screen people for tuberculosis and leprosy in Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest slums, in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Polio survivor Beverley Gill. Contributed photo

‘It makes me feel angry, disappointed, and sad,’ B.C. polio survivor says of vaccine refusal

Campbell River resident wishes she could talk to anti-vaxxers about her struggles

Polio survivor Beverley Gill. Contributed photo
A chunk of asbestos is displayed in Asbestos, Que., in an August 10, 2016, file photo. A group of doctors and environment advocates say the Liberals need to close a loophole that is allowing the resale of second-hand products containing asbestos. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Doctors alarmed by loophole allowing sale of used asbestos products

Canada banned the cancer-causing mineral and products that contain it in 2018

A chunk of asbestos is displayed in Asbestos, Que., in an August 10, 2016, file photo. A group of doctors and environment advocates say the Liberals need to close a loophole that is allowing the resale of second-hand products containing asbestos. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
This Friday, Oct. 15, 2021 photo shows a bottle of aspirin in the Brooklyn borough of New York. According to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s preliminary updated advice released on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, older adults without heart disease shouldn’t take daily aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. (AP Photo/Emma H. Tobin)

Advice shifting on aspirin use for preventing heart attacks

Daily low-dose aspirin advice for many who already have had a heart attack or stroke has not changed

This Friday, Oct. 15, 2021 photo shows a bottle of aspirin in the Brooklyn borough of New York. According to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s preliminary updated advice released on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, older adults without heart disease shouldn’t take daily aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. (AP Photo/Emma H. Tobin)
A sign is displayed in front of Health Canada headquarters in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Incorrect allowed dosage on acetaminophen label could lead to overdose or death

Health Canada: 500 mg tablets sold in packages containing 1,000 and 100 caplets

A sign is displayed in front of Health Canada headquarters in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Health-care workers outside Nanaimo Regional General Hospital are thanked during a car cruise last year. (News Bulletin file photo)

OPINION: This Thanksgiving, let’s thank health-care workers

Island Health launches website encouraging people to leave messages of appreciation

  • Oct 6, 2021
Health-care workers outside Nanaimo Regional General Hospital are thanked during a car cruise last year. (News Bulletin file photo)
B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie describes the findings of her survey of long-term care and assisted living residents under pandemic restrictions, B.C. legislature, Nov. 3, 2020. (B.C. government)

Seniors advocate to release review of COVID-19 outbreaks at B.C. care facilities

368 COVID-19 outbreaks at B.C. care facilities from January 2020 to September 2021 and 1,092 deaths

B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie describes the findings of her survey of long-term care and assisted living residents under pandemic restrictions, B.C. legislature, Nov. 3, 2020. (B.C. government)
Carol Dubé, husband of Joyce Echaquan, reads a statement next to his daughter Wassihna during a memorial marking the first anniversary of the death of his wife in front of the hospital where she died in Joliette, Que., on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Systemic racism that led to death of Joyce Echaquan ‘well-documented’: Quebec coroner

Géhane Kamel’s report into Echaquan’s death found that her demise was accidental, but avoidable

Carol Dubé, husband of Joyce Echaquan, reads a statement next to his daughter Wassihna during a memorial marking the first anniversary of the death of his wife in front of the hospital where she died in Joliette, Que., on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Chantel Chapman, a financial trauma researcher and educator, poses for a handout photo in Vancouver in August. THE CANADIAN PRESS

Financial stress is taking a physical toll on young Canadians, survey finds

FP Canada: 39 per cent of Canadians polled under 35 say financial stress has led to health issues

Chantel Chapman, a financial trauma researcher and educator, poses for a handout photo in Vancouver in August. THE CANADIAN PRESS