Media release: The head of Nova Scotia’s largest health care union is calling on the Rankin government to take immediate action to address a dire staffing shortage affecting the Emergency Department (ED) at the Halifax Infirmary.
In order to co-locate medical services, the Nova Scotia Health Authority is moving mental health and addictions services from three downtown Dartmouth locations to a new location in the Portland Hills subdivision. Dartmouth North MLA Susan Leblanc is worried that this will make in-person access way too difficult for residents of her riding.
Lenora Steele: “Listening dumbfounded to him allocate, from the public purse, $5-million in women’s venture capital I was staggered at the heartlessness, at the cheek, while just over here, yes, here, right here in front of us a woman sits on the side of her bed, a hospital phone in her hand calling a taxi to take her to a low-budget motel for the night. Her breast removed yesterday, she has no way home and must spend the night alone in Truro.”
Nova Scotians have allowed a lot of power to be concentrated at the provincial level, and it didn’t start with Stephen McNeil. What to do, Richard Starr asks.
Just before Christmas we reported on plans by the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) to farm out its health records document management to US-owned Iron Mountain. We speak with Jason MacLean, president of the NSGEU, about the many things wrong with that decision.
Danny Cavanagh: The headline in the NSGEU/CUPE press release reads “Dozens of hospital employees across Nova Scotia lose jobs to American-owned company just before the holidays.” This a move from a government who praises the dedication of our health care workers but is laying off the 91 employees who work in Health Information Services (HIS), scanning and archiving medical records.
Yesterday Nova Scotia Health told us that the decision to outsource health records management was merely being considered. We have seen an internal memo to staff that shows this to not be the case.
91 well-paying union jobs, many in rural Nova Scotia, will disappear when the Nova Scotia Health Authority farms out its health records management to US-owned Iron Mountain. CUPE Nova Scotia President Nan McFadgen is concerned how this will impact the already depressed economy in rural Nova Scotia, now stressed even further because of the pandemic. She’s also worried about entrusting an American company with personal health information.
“I’m sure the board is 100% nice people, but the evidence is that they fail at most things,” writes accessibility activist Gus Reed. How will they ever know what it is like being sick for a week while waiting for Access-a-Bus, to be without a family physician, to depend on public transportation, to live in a pharmacy desert?
After reading about Dr. Lynn Jones’ negative experience with staff in the QEII Emergency Department, Carol Millett wrote this letter to the Premier listing seven concrete actions that will begin to address the systemic racism many Black people face when accessing our health care system