Island Health has closed the ER at the Port Hardy Hospital overnight starting in January 2023, citing a staffing shortage. Patients requiring emergency care are transported to Port McNeill — a 45-kilometre drive southeast along a windy, dark highway that locals say can be treacherous in winter.
Experts say that an individual’s food environment is what plays a key role in determining how healthy they are, arguing that tackling issues like ultra-processed food consumption and obesity is more complicated than simply summoning the willpower to resist unhealthy foods.
Across Canada, several union officials who represent paramedics have sounded the alarm on the burnout, stress, and post-traumatic stress injuries that many paramedics are dealing with due to working conditions. Miles Randell, an advanced care paramedic, is trying to do something different for frontline health-care workers who need a supportive work environment.
Dana Kobernick never saw aging as a privilege. Then her longtime friend died, and her perception changed. As she enters her 60s, she’s learning to face life’s next steps with courage and gratitude, inspired by her friend’s resilience.
Measles deaths dropped 88 per cent over 24 years thanks to global immunization efforts but the number of cases surged in 2024, the World Health Organization says.
A week after RCMP officers seized more than eight million illegal cigarettes, the Alberta government is planning to get tougher on contraband tobacco, with legislation that includes mandatory reporting of seizures and harsher financial penalties for buyers, sellers and distributors.
Advocates and the widow of a quadriplegic Quebec man are preparing to file a class-action lawsuit against the province after the 66-year-old requested medical assistance in dying following a hospital stay last year that left him with a severe bedsore.
The notwithstanding clause allows for premiers or prime ministers to override rulings on legislation that judges have determined would violate sections of the Charter. But the use of the clause, once viewed by many as a political taboo, has become more frequent in recent years.
A Quebec coroner issued 31 recommendations in relation to the death of Normand Meunier, who sought a medically assisted death in March 2024 after his severe bedsores were made significantly worse by an ER stay in Saint-Jérôme.
While Premier David Eby says these changes are necessary to make sure health-care workers are clearly protected from liability, some in the health-care industry have raised questions about why this change is necessary – as they say the act already covers liability protection.
While the province has explored wider distribution of the spray for free as a pilot program, Health Minister Josie Osborne says it has not completed an evaluation of the program initially set to be completed late this summer.
Pfizer Canada says it has placed temporary limits on community pharmacy orders of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Co-op programs in health-care spaces regularly enlist post-secondary students, but some are skewing younger to target high schoolers. The hope is to spark interest in a broader pool of teens, especially those from under-represented groups, and get more of them thinking about Canada's health-care system.
Many of Yoplait's yogurts have been pulled from Canadian shelves after the company shared fears over pieces of plastic in some products.
In-flight medical emergencies happen roughly once every 212 flights, according to recent research. Experts say that airlines have clear protocols in place to respond to in-flight medical emergencies, with access to trained physicians who can provide ground support in the event that flight crew aren't able to connect with a volunteer medical professional on board.
As countries around the world move to ban social media for children under 16, with Nova Scotia and Quebec considering similar legislation, some 2SLGBTQ+ youth say that restricting online access could cut them off from vital communities that allow for identity exploration and support.
Canadian officials are warning the public not to consume recalled ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula because it may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum tied to infant illnesses in the U.S.
Many Alberta workers could no longer be investigated by their licensing bodies for what they say outside of work hours, should the legislature pass a new bill.
A national coalition of advocacy groups, health-care organizations and a telecommunications company have come together to demand the federal government reintroduce legislation to protect children from online exploitation.
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website has been changed to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, spurring outrage among a number of public health and autism experts.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson oversaw a "toxic," "chaotic" and dithering response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a delay in locking the country down resulting in about 23,000 more deaths, a report by a public inquiry concluded on Thursday.
Ian Walters received a prescription from his paramedical nurse this past summer, but instead of receiving a pill, he was given a pass to the Similkameen Recreation Centre in Keremeos, B.C., to use the gym and take part in programming.
For some, IUD insertion is no problem. For others, it’s extremely painful.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has confirmed her government's intention to allow physicians flexibility to work in both the public and private health care systems.
Ophthalmologists are urging provincial governments not to move ahead with plans that would allow optometrists to perform some surgeries and laser eye treatments, which are currently outside their scope of practice.
Manitoba’s NDP government is promising to build, saying in its third throne speech that it will construct an overpass at the location of a bus crash that killed 17 seniors, set up the province’s first supervised consumption site and build a new fuel-burning generation station to stave off a forecast power shortage.
Shoppers Drug Mart billed the Ontario government’s MedsCheck program $81.2 million for medication reviews over a two-year period when some of its current and former pharmacists said they were facing “unethical” corporate pressure to meet targets for the professional service.
After decades of decline, rates of cervical cancer within Canada have plateaued, according to the Canadian Cancer Society — a troubling trend for some experts, given that the type of cancer is preventable.
Some Alberta pediatricians say they've got an idea to help improve routine childhood vaccination rates, but they're facing roadblocks. The doctors want the shots, including measles and whooping cough vaccines, made routinely available in pediatric hospitals.
A government statement says that under new employment standards regulations, an employer can't ask for a note for the first two health-related absences of up to five consecutive days in the same year.
As deadly drug overdoses climbed across Canada, decision-makers faced political backlash for funding programs that gave drug users prescribed opioids and, against their own experts’ advice, scaled back their support of safe supply programs, an investigation by CBC’s the fifth estate has found.
Despite the detection, there have been no reports of infection in Germany and scientists say the risk is minimized by high vaccination coverage.
A new lung clinic opening in Halifax at the end of November is hoping to tackle long waitlists for breathing tests, while also aiming to act as a recruitment tool to fill respiratory therapy vacancies in Nova Scotia.
Some scientists say this year's flu shot isn't well matched to a key strain that could spread widely in the months ahead. So, is there still a point in getting it? Medical experts say: absolutely. Here’s why.
Alberta's premier likes to fulfil her party members' policy wishes. But do these ones coming to convention go too far?
Over 250 Quebec doctors are applying to be able to work in Ontario, according to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The surge of applications is happening in the wake of a controversial bill reforming doctors’ pay, which was passed on Oct. 25 in Quebec.
Alberta has marked its first influenza death of this year's flu season, after last year's season proved the deadliest in more than a decade.
With flu cases now rising in Canada, medical experts are bracing for a difficult influenza season linked to the global spread of an evolving H3N2 strain that could be a mismatch for this year’s vaccine.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it used professional marksmen to complete a cull of a large flock of ostriches in southern B.C. where avian flu was detected last December, ending a months-long legal battle between the agency and the birds' owners.
James D. Watson, the brilliant but controversial American biologist whose 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, the molecule of heredity, ushered in the age of genetics and provided the foundation for the biotechnology revolution of the late 20th century, has died at the age of 97.
RaeAnne Ellert grew up feeling isolated by her disability and found solace in online friendships. It wasn't until someone warned her that one of those friends was a potential scammer that she realized she needed to find friends and connections in the real world.
A coroner’s jury has heard testimony that members of Constance Lake First Nation continue to live under the threat of a fungal lung disease, four years after an outbreak of blastomycosis claimed five lives in the community near Hearst.
When Sara Pepper was living on the streets of St. Thomas, Ont., a few years back, she says there wasn’t much in the way of support. These days, she says, things are looking brighter — but there's still plenty of work to do.
A new deal with major drugmakers, unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, aims to expand coverage and cut prices for popular weight-loss drugs south of the border. So how much could Trump’s announcement really cut costs? And will Canadians also benefit?
Over the the next five years, up to 100,000 people in Ontario will be screened for genetic conditions that increase their risk of hereditary cancers and a condition tied to high cholesterol and heart disease, says Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
The federal budget is proposing more than $55 million for a new national emergency alert system, making good on a recommendation from the committee that examined the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
The province's Hairdressers Act regulates hairdressing services, but things like skin care, nail care and hair removal aren't covered by the legislation. That means providers don't need to be licensed or have credentials.
The B.C. Ministry of Health says it has directed Island Health to reinstate key staff positions that were cut for a program that is part of British Columbia's strategy for mental health and substance use care.
