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Physician assistants? It shouldn’t be that hard. Really

The province has announced a pilot program to see if it's safe to let physician assistants into our health care system. They already operate legally in much of the US, Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and in the Canadian military. So why just a modest pilot project? We're glad you asked.

November 17, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

A September announcement that the province’s health department plans to launch a new pilot project to road-test the use of physician assistants had somehow passed over — or under — my Spidey-sense news radar until it popped up again, almost incidentally, near the end of a news report Friday. The Friday story focused on new...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Brittany Belair, collaborative emergency centre (CEC), College of Physicians and Surgeons in Nova Scotia, Fred Wu, healthcare, PC leader Tim Houston, physician assistants

When a healthcare crisis is an opportunity… for an “important milestone” moment photo-op

While our healthcare crises multiply, our leaders stage photo opportunities that resemble trying to slap Band-Aids on the backsides of rampaging elephants. Whatever happened to political leadership?

August 18, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

So last week, 10 out of 37 hospital emergency departments in Nova Scotia were closed for at least some part of the week. The Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital won in the best-in-worst category: its emergency department was scheduled to be closed for a total of five days last week, only finally reopening its doors on...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Cuba, Cuba health outcomes, Dalhousie University School of Medicine, David Anderson, Emergency department closures, Gary Ernest, healthcare, Kristen Lipscombe, medical students, Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital, Premier Stephen McNeil

The McNeil government is going for the secrecy gold medal

Is Nova Scotia Canada’s most secretive jurisdiction? Or does it just act that way? Consider a few especially egregious, not-at-all-transparent episodes from just the last week.

July 21, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

Is Nova Scotia Canada’s most secretive jurisdiction? Or does it just act that way? Consider a few especially egregious, not-at-all-transparent episodes from just the last week. Let’s start with the latest on plans to build a new 126,000-sq. ft. community outpatient healthcare facility in Bayers Lake Business Park. Though the facility is ostensibly going to...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Alex Cameron, Alton Gas, Community Health Partners, Community Outpatient Centre, conquered people, Devin Stevens, Government secrecy, healthcare, Indigenous rights, Justice Duncan Beveridge, P3 hospital projects, Stephen McNeil, Yarmouth ferry

Crisis? What crisis? Just a(nother) ‘new (lack of) direction’ for healthcare

Last week's "mutual" firing of the province's deputy health minister shows just how unwilling our premier is to acknowledge our healthcare crisis — let alone do something about it.

June 2, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

Last week, when Premier Stephen McNeil “mutually” agreed to fire Denise Perret — the deputy minister of health he’d hired just two-and-a-half years ago — he explained it was because “we’re now re-setting and moving in a new direction.” He did not explain what he was re-setting from or to, or in what new yellow-brick-road...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Denise Perret, deputy health minister, Dr. Peter Vaughan, healthcare, P3 hospital projects, Premier Stephen McNeil, Richard Starr

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

Please subscribe to The Tideline.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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Recent posts

  • Body of work: pandemic coverage February 28, 2021
  • The Halifax Examiner’s mass murder coverage February 28, 2021
  • 3 cases of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia on Sunday, Feb. 28 February 28, 2021
  • ‘The rest is for the seagulls’ February 28, 2021
  • 4 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia on Saturday, Feb. 27 February 27, 2021

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