Hospital-Institutional

Alberta Health Services has confirmed a dozen positions at the Stollery Children’s Hospital are being eliminated. However, AHS said the positions will be replaced.

Frustrated and worried health care workers at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) say only a radical reform of the way the teaching hospital is managed will salvage its reputation as an academic teaching hospital.

Staffed with more than 1,700 medical professionals, 324 beds and almost 500 volunteer staff, HDGH cares for well over 250,000 patients a year from a catchment area of 500,000 residents. The challenge CEO Ken Deane was concerned about patient flow and capacity issues that were contributing to poor ER and surgical wait times at HDGH.

Amid the gleaming walls and polished floors of the new hospital, an anachronism rests behind glass in a quiet corner near a bank of elevators. It's the uniform of a Second World War era nurse, Major Goldie Mae McCoy.

A hospital is, by its nature, the scene of constant life-or-death situations. It’s the work we nurses, doctors and other health professionals do; we chose it. The threat of harm can jazz you up or bring you down, but what it should demand, always, is the highest possible level of professionalism. Who’s at risk when that doesn’t occur?

The Capital District Health Authority’s hunt for experienced nurses is raising eyebrows in New Brunswick where some claim targeted ads are designed to poach specialized people from the province.

Nursing group also wants immediate improvements in government funding.

TORONTO | A new pilot project in oncology at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) has patients with osteosarcoma (bone cancer) receiving their treatment as an outpatient. Until now, most treatment for pediatric bone and/or muscle cancer was done in the hospital.