Some health-care workers say the privatization of hospital cafeterias in Calgary and Edmonton has led to empty shelves, higher prices and a dramatic degradation in the quality of the food available to patients, staff and visitors.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) contracted vendors to run the food retail service at hospitals in both cities last year and the outsourcing of those operations has taken place over the last few months.
“Everything seems to be fatty, carb-y, and just congealed,” said Dr. Stephanie Cooper, an obstetrician who works at Foothills Medical Centre.
AHS is acknowledging that it has received complaints and says…
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Workplace mental health in Canada: new study
A recent report published by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has found that five million young professionals in Canada are in need of mental health support, advising businesses and organizations to invest more into employee wellbeing.
“There’s still a lot of stigma in discussing mental health. Young people especially, are feeling discouraged from presenting the issues that they’re facing right now,” Genevieve Bonin, co-author of the report and managing director and partner at BCG told CTVNews.ca. “Organizations do care greatly about the health and well being of their employees, and I think this is now a very open topic for…
Senate passes grocery rebate bill, health funding top-up
The Senate has passed legislation to implement the Liberals’ promised “grocery rebate” and federal health transfer top-ups.
After a condensed study, the upper chamber gave the final stamp of approval to Bill C-46 on Wednesday.
The legislation pulled out two specific elements of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2023 federal budget that the Liberals wanted to see passed in short order.
Once the bill receives a royal assent, it will allow for the one-time $2.5 billion affordability-focused “grocery rebate” payment to be administered to approximately 11 million eligible recipients, something the Canada Revenue Agency says will happen…
Common disinfectant wipes expose people to dangerous chemicals, research reveals | US news
Since the pandemic’s outbreak, the global use of disinfectants has gone through the roof. Clorox dramatically boosted the production of its wipe packs to 1.5ma day by mid-2021, and an industry trade group said 83% of consumers surveyed around the same time reported they had used a wipe disinfectant in the last week.
But as schools reopened, a group of toxic chemical researchers grew concerned as they heard reports of kids regularly using disinfectant wipes on their classroom desks, or teachers running disinfectant foggers.
The researchers knew the disinfectants did little to protect consumers from Covid, and were instead exposing…
AG James, state health commissioner warns about insurance renewal scam
Attorney General Letitia James and acting Department of Health Commissioner James McDonald are warning New Yorkers about a new scam, in which residents are falsely asked to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain their state health insurance.
Some callers threaten to have the policies canceled if no payment is given, officials said.
“This is false, and the New York agencies that administer Medicaid benefits will never charge or ask for money from consumers to enroll or re-enroll,” said a news release from James.
Under federal law, implemented during the pandemic to allow for uninterrupted enrollment ended on March…
BC health care: Crisis at Langley hospital emergency department?
The Lower Mainland’s medical community is stunned after receiving an urgent memo from a highly-respected doctor about Langley Memorial Hospital’s emergency department – saying it is near collapse and patients should be discouraged from going there.
CTV News has obtained the email, written by Dr. Jeff Plante and sent to physicians across Fraser Health late Friday afternoon, describing very sick patients warehoused in the emergency department for days since there aren’t enough physicians in the wards to care for new people.
“I would like to urge you to advise your patients to, if at all possible, bypass Langley Memorial Hospital…