Tag: hospitals

Opinion: This is a pandemic of attrition

Electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. Image captured and colourized at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana. Photo by: NIAID. Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

Opinion: This is a pandemic of attrition

Published December 7, 2023

Published by: Calgary Herald
Published on: December 7, 2023
By Joe Vipond, Julia M. Wright, Dan Furst

It’s time for our society to admit that we’ve made a mistake and change course. The COVID-is-mild experiment, despite the wishing and the hoping, has been a tragic failure. We aren’t just accepting ongoing hospitalizations and deaths to protect the economy, but also ignoring the social and economic costs of continuing high levels of acute infections. Worse still are more cases of Long COVID, a condition that takes many people entirely out of the workforce. And with every wave, the staffing attrition worsens.

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Saskatchewan

More than a year after her daughter’s death at Yorkton hospital, Regina mother still looking for answers

Published December 7, 2023

Published by: CBC News
Published on: December 7, 2023
By Shlok Talati

It’s been more than a year since Gwen Gilbert first raised questions about her daughter’s death at the hospital in Yorkton, Sask.

Teary-eyed, Gilbert echoed the same questions at the Saskatchewan Legislature on Wednesday.

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Now is not the time to end Covid-related services in BC

Photo of a healthcare worker who is wearing blue sterile gloves. Photo by Gustavo Fring via Pexels.

British Columbia

Now is not the time to end Covid-related services in BC

Published December 6, 2023

Published by: The Georgia Straight
Published on: December 6, 2023
By Dr. Karina Zeidler, Hannah Siden, E.S. Lee

After 2023, funding for Covid-related services is set to end in BC.

For nearly four years now, British Columbians have been grappling with Covid-19. We’re currently aided by health management initiatives like vaccination, testing, and protective equipment for healthcare workers. Since 2021, these measures have been funded by BC’s Pandemic Recovery Contingencies, a three-year plan that also sustains economic recovery programs and supports for vulnerable community members.

This plan expires at the end of 2023. After that, our government anticipates that “most initiatives will wind down or be integrated into existing government programs.”

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Ontario

Ontario hospital ERs have closed 867 times so far this year, health coalition says

Published December 5, 2023

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: December 5, 2023
By Elizabeth Payne

Emergency departments and other hospital services have closed a record number of times in Ontario so far in 2023, according to a new Ontario Health Coalition report being described as “staggering.”

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Ottawa Public Health to let go most remaining COVID-19 staff as province ends special pandemic funding

A healthcare worker is administering a vaccine dose to a patient. The healthcare worker is holding the needle with their right hand. They are wearing black clothes, and there is a green background.

Ottawa-Gatineau

Ottawa Public Health to let go most remaining COVID-19 staff as province ends special pandemic funding

Published December 3, 2023

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: December 3, 2023
By Elizabeth Payne

Ottawa Public Health will let go most of its remaining COVID-19 staff by the end of the year as the province stops directly reimbursing most costs related to the pandemic.

OPH will continue offering vaccines to the most vulnerable, including long-term care residents and recent immigrants, but will wrap up broader COVID-19 efforts by the end of March.

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Quebec

Les virus respiratoires prennent d’assaut les urgences du Québec

Published December 2, 2023

Published by: Radio-Canada
Published on: December 2, 2023
By Gabrielle Proulx

A trio of respiratory viruses hover over Quebec and send many patients to the emergency room.

According to Jean Longtin, a microbiologist-infectiologist at the CHU in Québec-Université Laval, it is mainly the respiratory syncytial virus, the RSV, influenza and COVID-19 that are currently circulating.

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Toronto

Toronto ER doctor says winter surge of respiratory illnesses has begun

Published November 28, 2023

Published by: CityNews
Published on: November 28, 2023
By Shauna Hunt, Meredith Bond

Toronto emergency room doctors say the winter surge of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections is underway, with hospitals seeing a wave of visits across the GTA.

In the last week, nearly 250 Ontarians have been admitted to hospital, and Public Health Ontario (PHO) reports the COVID-19 wastewater signal is at its highest level in more than a year.

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Ontario

Masking requirements increase in all areas of Stevenson Memorial Hospital

Published November 24, 2023

Published by: CTV News
Published on: November 24, 2023
By Kim Phillips

Masking requirements are increasing at Stevenson Memorial Hospital (SMH) starting on Monday in all areas of the facility, including hallways and shared spaces.

The hospital’s website cites rising COVID-19 cases, including outbreaks at health care and seniors’ facilities as the reason behind the change.

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PEI

Kings County Memorial Hospital in-patient unit declares COVID-19 outbreak

Published November 23, 2023

Published by: CBC News
Published on: November 23, 2023

A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared in the in-patient unit at Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague.

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Ontario

COVID-19: Peterborough area risk index remains high; 2 outbreaks at PRHC

Published November 23, 2023

Published by: Global News
Published on: November 23, 2023
By Greg Davis

For the fourth week in a row, the community risk index for COVID-19 for the Peterborough, Ont., region remains at a high level, public health officials report.

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Alberta

Calgary’s Peter Lougheed Centre adopts masking directive to curb COVID-19 infections

Published November 22, 2023

Published by: Global News
Published on: November 23, 2023
By Paula Tran

Calgary’s Peter Lougheed Centre is one of the latest hospitals to adopt Alberta Health Service’s mask directive to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Masking is now required for Peter Lougheed Centre’s staff, physicians, volunteers, contracted service providers and laboratory workers in patient-facing areas of the hospital.

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Ontario

Seven new COVID outbreaks declared in Thunder Bay

Published November 21, 2023

Published by: TBnewsWatch.com
Published on: November 21, 2023

Over the past six days, numerous COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported in local long-term care homes, retirement homes and hospitals. The Thunder Bay District Health…

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Ontario

COVID-19 outbreak at Kenora hospital

Published November 20, 2023

Published by: NWOnewswatch.com
Published on: November 20, 2023
By Mike Stimpson

Lake of the Woods District Hospital is experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak within part of its campus.

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universal masking

With COVID surging, should I wear a mask?

Published November 19, 2023

Published by: The Conversation
Published on: November 19, 2023
By C. Raina MacIntyre

COVID is on the rise again, with a peak likely over the holiday season. Given this, health authorities in a number of Australian states have…

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Australia

WA public hospitals strengthen mask-wearing requirements in response to surging COVID cases

Published November 17, 2023

Published by: ABC News
Published on: November 17, 2023
By Kate Christian

Surging COVID cases in Western Australia has seen the first public health measures introduced since the state’s COVID-19 ‘state of emergency’ declaration was dropped.

From Monday, all staff and patients in high-risk hospital clinical areas must wear masks.

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Ontario