Couple randomly attacked, 1 stabbed, by group of teens in Toronto, police say
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
Bell Island in Newfoundland and Labrador is set to lose its only doctor come December, meaning inhabitants will have to take a ferry to the mainland for medical care.
Named for the large bell-shaped rock off its west end, the island in Conception Bay, five kilometres off the Avalon Peninsula, was one of the world’s major iron-ore producers from 1895 to 1966.
The 34-square kilometre island is home to approximately 2,500 people, and the island’s pharmacist Kara O’Keefe, says there are limited options for Bell Islanders if they have a medical emergency.
“Right now on Bell Island we have a community health centre, we have a small community hospital where we have an emergency room and we have access to a physician for 24 hours, however, of course without a physician we can’t have an emergency room,” O’Keefe said on CTV’s Your Morning Thursday. “So unfortunately what would have to happen is that patient be transported on an ambulance on the ferry from Bell Island to Portugal Cove and then on to a larger hospital in our capital of St John’s.”
O’Keefe said the loss of the doctor is hitting residents hard. The only other two doctors on the Island retired last month.
“People are very frightened right now,” she said. “Newfoundland has an aging population and Bell Island even more so – the average age of our residents on Bell Island is 65 to 67.”
O’Keefe said many of the residents live with high blood pressure, diabetes, lung disease – all comorbidities that can put someone in the hospital.
“When you don’t have access to emergency care, that can make the difference in what kind of treatment you are going to get and ultimately life or death if you don’t get care quickly enough,” she said.
On top of concerns about access to healthcare, O’Keefe said the island’s ferry – their lifeline to the mainland – has had chronic issues.
“We recently commissioned a new ferry to be built for Bell Island, and to put it into context – it left on St. Patrick’s Day and only came back this past weekend,” she said. “We’ve been forced to use loaner ferries for the meantime.”
O’Keefe said that with frequent breakdowns, poor weather and schedule issues – Bell Island residents’ access to the mainland has been severely compromised.
“It’s unreliable access [to St John’s] and that can be dangerous for people trying to book appointments or need emergency care, maybe they need chemotherapy or dialysis…you’re looking at massive wait times,” she said.
The situation on Bell Island speaks to a wider one in the province, as one in five people in Newfoundland and Labrador do not have access to a family doctor, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association.
O’Keefe would like to see pharmacists like herself and other healthcare professionals leverage their skills to cover the gaps in access to healthcare.
“In Alberta we see pharmacists independently prescribe for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes,” she said. “Our colleagues in Nova Scotia can treat uncomplicated urinary tract infections, leveraging the skills of nurse practitioners and paramedics and all of our allied healthcare professionals can help reduce the burden on the healthcare system.”
This story has been updated with the correct information about how many people in Newfoundland and Labrador do not have access to a primary care physician
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
He once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. Now Michael Cohen is prosecutors' biggest piece of legal ammunition in the former president's hush money trial.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
For decades, North Bay, Ontario's water supply has harboured chemicals associated with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy. It's far from the only city with that problem.
Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.
Thousands more civilians have fled Russia's renewed ground offensive in Ukraine's northeast that has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday.
Amid significant criticism from advocates, Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities Minister Kamal Khera is defending her government's long-promised, newly unveiled Canada Disability Benefit, calling the funds an "initial step," but without laying out a timeline for future expansion of the program.
RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme says he wants the government to look at drafting a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.