Government & Policy

MIRAMICHI, N.B. – Horizon Health Network CEO John McGarry (pictured) says it is time to move away from the concept that all care must occur in hospitals. “We have seen a shift in demography coming for some time – an aging population, southern migration within the province, and the shift from rural to urban living,” McGarry writes in a commentary. Read More

QUEBEC CITY – Health Minister Gaétan Barrette (pictured) announced that Quebec will move toward the use of a single electronic health record system in hospitals across the province. The solution decided upon by the province is called Cristal-Net, and it has been in use at the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec – Université Laval since 2003. Read More

EDMONTON – The Alberta Health Ministry is suing an Ontario doctor whose alleged misdiagnosis of a brain tumour led to the patient needing extensive, and costly, treatment in the Western province. Read More

VICTORIA – The British Columbia government has announced a new four-year strategy for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services to help health authorities increase patient access to MRI scans. Read More

VANCOUVER – A new expert report recommends immediate steps to reduce fatal overdoses, addiction and other severe harms related to unsafe prescribing in British Columbia. The province’s four largest private addiction treatment facilities have partnered with over 70 of B.C.’s leading addiction and public health practitioners to endorse the report’s recommendations. Read More

EDMONTON – Alberta’s new NDP government announced it will increase healthcare spending in the province by 2.2% to $19.7 billion this year. That compares with the previous government’s spring budget, which called for a cut to health expenditures to $18.9 billion, after which funding would have stayed flat. Read More

WINNIPEG – Patients across Manitoba will receive even better services and treatment with the purchase of more than $30 million of new healthcare equipment, Health Minister Sharon Blady (pictured) announced this month. Read More

SASKATOON – Several senior healthcare executives who took “lean” training at public expense have since left their posts, resulting in the waste of more than $1 million of taxpayers’ money, says the Opposition health critic. Read More

Ontario has selected William Charnetski (pictured) as the province’s new Chief Health Innovation Strategist. Charnetski is an accomplished national and global executive with over a decade of experience in developing integrated health solutions in Canada and around the world in the global pharmaceutical industry. Read More