King Charles' cancer treatment progressing well, says Buckingham Palace
King Charles III’s doctors are 'sufficiently pleased' with his cancer treatment and he is expected to return to public-facing duties, Buckingham Palace announced on Friday.
As health-care workers and advocates continue to sound the alarm on Canada’s collapsing health-care system, the Canadian Medical Association’s (CMA) newly appointed president says it’s not too late to fix the issue.
“There's a lot of opportunity to make a big difference and even though things are collapsing. We can fix things if we work together,” Dr. Alika Lafontaine told CTV’s Your Morning on Sept. 22.
Lafontaine, who is the first CMA president of Cree, Anishinaabe, Metis and Pacific Islander ancestry, says his background has helped him focus on issues for BIPOC, who are often overlooked in the health-care system.
“Being First Nation, Metis and Pacific Islander has all shaped the way that I see patients and I think it helps me to create space and see things that people might not always see,” he said.
Along with his brother, Lafontaine created the app ‘Safe Space,’ made for Indigenous patients in B.C. to anonymously report racism experienced in health-care settings. He said initiatives like these can help part of Canada’s health crisis.
The CMA recently came out with a report highlighting the current funding for health-care services on all government levels. Across the board, provinces and territories share the same priorities including workforce recruitment, reducing surgical backlog, accessible health care for all communities and innovative solutions, such as virtual care.
“One of the things about health is you don't really think about it unless you need it,” he said. “For those of us who are in the midst of it, we see what's happening and when patients come in to receive care, they realize that it takes a lot longer and sometimes they can't even get to the places that they need to get in order to get into the system.”
Lafontaine says this has been an ongoing issue as staff shortages continue to affect hospitals across the country. Statistics Canada reported a rise in job vacancies within the health-care sector in the first quarter of 2022, with vacancies increasing by more than 90 per cent compared to 2020 data.
To fix this issue, Lafontaine says governments on all levels need to prioritize not only training for new health workers and initiatives to keep current staff, but create an easier path for foreign workers to become certified in Canada.
“One of the things that I often see when working in emergency situations is people get overwhelmed and so they just get paralyzed with thinking about what they could do,” he said. “We just need to start walking forward, doing the things that we know will work and things will eventually start to fit back together.”
King Charles III’s doctors are 'sufficiently pleased' with his cancer treatment and he is expected to return to public-facing duties, Buckingham Palace announced on Friday.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
After the Assembly of First Nations' national chief complained to Air Canada about how staffers treated her and her ceremonial headdress on a flight this week, she says the airline responded by offering a 15 per cent discount on her next flight.
An investigation is underway after a Regina police officer was accidentally shot by a fellow officer’s gun during the search of a house early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
The current overall public health risk posed by the H5N1 bird flu virus is low, the World Health Organization said on Friday, but urged countries to stay alert for cases of animal-to-human transmission.
A pair of Montreal designers' work has now been viewed over 41 million times. Taylor Swift dons a Victorian throwback black gown in her latest music video, 'Fortnight', designed by UNTTLD due Simon Belanger and Jose Manuel Saint-Jacques.
Health Canada issued recalls for various items this week, including kids’ bathrobes, cribs and henna cones.
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The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
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The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.