News 1. “Insufficient grounds” Susie Butlin was murdered by her neighbour Junior Duggan in September 2017. Joan Baxter details how Butlin filed a sexual assault charge against Duggan with the Bible Hill RCMP detachment, but investigating officers said there wasn’t a strong enough case against Duggan so she should instead file an application for a peace […]
Double Exposure
The pandemic has pushed back the curtain on how decades of austerity have left Canadians and the health care system more vulnerable.
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. By April 13, Nova Scotia’s State of Emergency had been in effect for 23 days, schools were closed, most businesses shuttered, and people were feeling the effects of the “lock down.” At the daily COVID-19 briefing, Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s […]
“COVID cluster” info misleads health care providers — and the public
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. The Nova Scotia Health Authority has mapped out “COVID clusters” by postal code, and that information is being mistakenly used such that people within those postal codes are being denied medical attention. I’ve obtained the list of 10 postal codes, which are described by the […]
What went wrong with MyHealthNS?
We thought you'd never ask. We can't tell you. But thanks for asking. Your health care matters to your government...
The provincial government’s news release last Wednesday was succinct, if not desert-dry. “MyHealthNS,” it began, “the province’s secure online service that allows patients to access their health information and securely communicate with their doctor, is moving to a new software vendor.” Which new software vendor? When? The release didn’t say. Why? What happened? Well, the...
Janet Knox: helping people develop a healthy lifestyle would be a better investment of health care dollars
About 150 people turned up for the annual general meeting of the Nova Scotia Health Authority in Truro yesterday. The NSHA oversees a yearly budget of $2.1 billion used to operate the province’s hospitals and ambulances, deliver diagnostic tests and mental health treatment, recruit family doctors and nurse practitioners, as well as provide wellness programs...
Nova Scotia health care by the numbers
A rally organized by a citizen who started a Facebook group called “Nova Scotia Health Care Crisis” attracted about 75 people in front of the former library on Spring Garden Road Saturday afternoon. They included three frustrated emergency room doctors from Valley Regional Hospital who began a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for new long-term […]
Health care crisis? What health care crisis?
Listen to Premier McNeil and Health Minister Delorey and you might imagine Inez Rudderham’s problems are specific and anomalous. Fix them and we fix the problem. The problem is McNeil and Delorey are the problem.
“To the premier of Nova Scotia, I dare you to take a meeting with me, and explain to me, and look into my eyes, and tell me that there is no health-care crisis in my province of Nova Scotia.” Inez Rudderham It was probably too much to expect Premier Stephen McNeil to respond in any...
Health care crisis? Check. Leadership to solve it? Another question…
“I want to assure you that I’ve heard you, and I’ve listened,” McNeil said of the health care crisis on election night. “We have a plan, and the opposition parties have a plan, and we can work together to make it better." So much for working together. With the opposition. Or, more importantly, with Nova Scotians.
Did you know that, as of Friday morning, the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s News website was reporting a full computer page — 10 different items — flagging current, ongoing, never-ending emergency room closures in Nova Scotia? From the Lillian Fraser Memorial in Tatamagouche, to the Eastern Shore Memorial in Sheet Harbour, to Guysborough Memorial, to […]
The Horne case: mumble-mouthed nothings from mealy-mouthed nobodies
Neither Capital Health nor the Nova Scotia Health Authority has ever publicly apologized to Horne for years of bullying and harassment, while successive provincial governments chose to look the other way, giving carte blanche to the health authority to hire hugely expensive, by-the-hour outside lawyers to bully Horne for more than a decade. And so it goes...
If you read only last week’s headlines — Appeal Court Slashes Damages Payout to Cardiologist Gabrielle Horne (Chronicle Herald); Halifax Cardiologist Sees Reduced Damages of $800K in Suit Against Health Authority: Nova Scotia Court of Appeal Rejects Appeal by Dr. Gabrielle Horne to also Sue for Breach of Contract (cbc.ca) — you might assume world...
Doctor, doctor, who needs a doctor? 42,198 Nova Scotians and counting…
The larger issue is the lack of political leadership to tackle the crisis. Where’s Stephen McNeil when we need him? Oh, right...
Nova Scotia has a doctor problem. Perhaps lack-of-doctor might be more accurate. And “crisis” is certainly a more apt description than the mundane problem. According to the province’s one-year-old “Need A Family Practice” list, 42,198 Nova Scotians — 4.6 per cent of the province’s population — are currently officially listed as looking for a doctor....