Dalhousie University professor co-authors medical breakthrough
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CBC
27 minutes ago
- CBC
From Costco to clinics: New health-care centre opening in east end of St. John's this fall
A new health-care facility will open in the former Costco building in St. John's in October, offering urgent care and outpatient appointments. People may know it as the former Costco building, but "it looks nothing like that now," Health Minister Krista Lynn Howell told reporters during a tour of the site on Tuesday. Howell said the new urgent- and ambulatory-care centre at 28 Stavanger Drive is opening in phases this fall and is expected to shorten hospital wait times. The urgent care centre will treat people with non-life threatening injuries and illnesses — such as minor sprains and strains. It's meant to relieve pressure on emergency rooms, said Howell, so ERs can focus on "true emergencies." Several outpatient services are also opening at the ambulatory-care centre in October, relocating from the Health Sciences Centre and St. Clare's Mercy Hospital. These include several specialist clinics and two X-ray machines, orthopedics, audiology, and appointment scheduling and registration, said a Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services statement. More services are scheduled to move to the site in December, including physiotherapy, blood collection, occupational therapy, surgery preadmission clinic, pain clinic, ultrasound and an additional X-ray machine. MRI services are set to open in 2026. There will be an information campaign in the fall to let people know where they should go for different health issues, said Greg Browne, a vascular surgeon and the clinical lead for healthcare infrastructure. Once you're inside the building, Howell said clear signs will make it easier for people to know where their appointments are. "I think as patients we're going to really see the benefits of this once we start using it," said Dorothy Senior, a patient advisor who sits on committees for the health authority. She listed the benefits of having access to all clinics in one area, colour coding, and having comfortable places to sit. In its statement, the health authority said the hub will have free parking for patients and staff, as well as an outdoor space. A pharmacy and Jumping Bean coffee shop are set to open there next year, and there are plans underway for a daycare provider. The project is coming in on budget, said Kimberley Pike, clinical planner with Provincial Capital Planning. The province is renting the old Costco site, which hasn't been used since 2019. "Clinic appointments and ambulatory appointments really don't need to happen in an acute care hospital, with all the hustle and bustle and the stress that people go through by going into a hospital environment," said Pike. In its statement, the health authority said some outpatient services will still remain at the hospitals. Ear, nose and throat clinics, as well as rheumatology, will also stay at St. Clare's Mercy Hospital.
National Post
44 minutes ago
- National Post
Chris Selley: Let your kids outside, for God's sake, even if it's a bit smoky
Article content Article content It sure took me back. This sort of messaging only undermines the larger cause of public health. And speaking of which: 'I think for a child with underlying asthma, who must be outside, I would recommend wearing an N95 mask,' Green told the Star, somewhat paradoxically. 'But really, as much as possible, we should be keeping all children inside.' Article content We should be keeping all children inside as much as possible. In July. Even if they're not especially vulnerable to smoke. After screwing up their lives for three years during COVID-19. Article content No. No, we should not be doing that. Obviously. Article content Whether you think school closures were justified or not during the pandemic, at all or to the truly extraordinary extent Ontario took it, at this point we should be exploring every avenue to remedy the damage. And that does not mean trapping kids inside because the air quality's a bit crap. Article content That pandemic-era damage is huge. Of course it is. One of the most bizarre rhetorical phenomena of the pandemic was people arguing it wouldn't really do kids all that much harm not to go to school for a year or two. If that were true, why on earth do we spend so much money on K-12 education in the first place? Article content Article content The anecdotes from teachers and child-care workers about socially maladjusted and academically delayed kids keep piling up. So does the academic research: 'The pandemic has left its mark on their behaviour, mental health, social skills and their education,' BBC reported last month. 'Childhood experiences … tend to have an outsized effect on life trajectories because they can alter brain development, behaviour and overall wellbeing.' Article content Standardized test scores have crashed in Britain, where schools were closed for considerably shorter periods of time than in Ontario and Quebec. And we did basically bugger-all to compensate for it except graduate struggling kids anyway and send them out into the world and hope for the best. Article content Article content Meanwhile, perhaps not coincidentally, the verb 'swarming' has gained new prominence with respect to gangs of feral youths attacking innocent people — homeless people, pizza franchisees. We will never know if they reoffend, because we can't know their names. Article content Article content The most Toronto Star part of the whole affair: Alongside the article advising children to stay indoors if at all possible, the paper ran another article quoting an expert explaining that people aren't even safe from wildfire smoke inside. You should close all your windows, a University of Waterloo professor advised (because, obviously, everyone has air conditioning). You should even consider taping the windows shut, the Waterloo prof advised, because homes have 'leaks and cracks' through which wildfire-smoke particulates might invade your home. Article content That's absolutely bananas. How far should parents go? Pull their kids out of day camps or sleepover camps? Cancel all their kids' summer recreational activities, hopefully including some unstructured capering around in their neighbourhoods? I don't think parents are that dumb or hysterical. The media they consume shouldn't be either. Article content
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Alberta storm chasers find beauty, science, community up in the clouds
Social Sharing You know when Environment Canada tells you a storm is coming and to stay away from it? There's a group of people based in Alberta who find their happy place in the eye of a storm, not a safe distance from it. Matt Melnyk comes by his love of clouds organically. As an airline pilot, he flies among them on a regular basis. "I've always been fascinated by clouds," Melnyk told CBC News in an interview. "Why does that one look like cauliflower, why does this one look like silk? When you see them in a thunderstorm there are so many different parts. You have the wall cloud, the shelf cloud, the cumulonimbus cloud. There are so many different parts of it. No two storms are the same, which I find super amazing." Melnyk has been storm chasing for more than 15 years. "I am part of a group called Team Dominator Canada. It's the Canadian version of professional storm chasers in the States." Mark Simpson is on the same team, but with another purpose. "My focus is mainly collecting science data so we can improve response times for tornados," Simpson explained. "Other members do photography, safety, and some others do some science as well." Simpson, who isn't a pilot, stumbled into his passion almost 30 years ago in 1996. "I supposed I got into it when I saw the first Twister movie," he said, with a laugh. "I kind of always had a passion for it and the opportunity arose when I moved to Canada. I found out there are tornados nearby so I decided to learn how to chase. I got the opportunity to go down to the U.S. due to the need to get data. I used the skills I have in electronics so I could build a sensor that we could launch into a tornado." During the summer, especially in July, Simpson stays busy. It's roughly four days on, then three days to analyze the video and data. "We are a little bit on the fringe from the research ourselves. We are not affiliated with the university. That allows us to do some things that others consider a little bit extreme," he said. But working outside the world of academia has its advantages too. "That said, the science stands on its own. You can either do it and reach that goal, or not. We do get more scrutiny but that's fine. Some of the work we do is fairly cutting edge, it's new, and stuff not being done in the universities." The goal is to get the work published, but there is also a public safety piece. "A lot of people monitor social media to see where bad weather is going to hit, so we try to give the location of the storm, the direction it is moving in, things like that." Simpson said a good sized storm can attract around 30 to 40 chasers. Meanwhile, for the pilot with a side hustle, it's about capturing a split second of magic. "I like to go out there and put myself in a position where I can get a really cool photo and come home with a postcard," Melnyk said. "When I got my first lightning photo, I was hooked right away."
