Telehealth: A boon for rural patients?
Getting to see your specialist for important health care in rural BC can be challenging, especially in the winter. Seeing your doctor through video conferencing can be the best option for many people. Take expectant mom Natalie Santano, who used telehealth video conferencing technology to connect with her specialist in Nelson....
Health coalition calls on province to take action on tobacco now
This National Non-Smoking Week (January 21-27), the Clean Air Coalition of BC is recommending ways the provincial government can take action to prevent youth from smoking, help those most heavily addicted, and address increasingly complex smoking patterns. Diseases caused by tobacco cost BC more than any other preventable...
Canada lags behind rest of world per capita in number of doctors
The number of doctors in Canada (per person) lags far behind other developed countries, and if current trends continue, Canada likely won’t close the gap in the coming years, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. “Physicians play a crucial...
UPDATED: Interior Health switches gears on service changes to Slocan Community Health Centre
Interior Health is backtracking on its decision to curtail emergency department hours at the Slocan Community Health Centre (SCHC) a media release said Thursday. IH said its delaying any formal changes pending additional recruitment efforts and further discussions on a long-term service model that will meet local health care...
UPDATED: Air Quality Advisory ENDED for Grand Forks
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, in collaboration with the Interior Health Authority, has ended the Air Quality Advisory issued on January 13 for Grand Forks due to the high concentrations of fine particulates. Changing weather conditions are expected to further improve air quality over the next few ...
Arrow Lakes Hospital celebrates $2.1 million in upgrades
Nakusp Mayor Karen Hamling said she is "absolutely ecstatic" after the BC government announced Friday $2.1 million in upgrades to the acute and emergency department spaces at the local hospital. Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy joined representatives from the West Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital District (RHD),...
Woodbury Village now on Water Quality Advisory
It may have taken months, but the Regional District of Central Kootenay has downgraded the Boil Water Notice for the Woodbury Village Water System to a Water Quality Advisory. In a media release the RDCK said, “repeated test results have indicated that the water quality has improved and is free of any presence of Coliform...
Special Public Avalanche Warning Issued
Avalanche Canada and Parks Canada are issuing a Special Public Avalanche Warning for recreational backcountry users, in effect immediately until the end of day Monday, January 15. The warning applies to the following forecast regions: Lizard Range & Flathead, South Rockies, Purcells, Kootenay Boundary, South & North...
Opinion: The second 'Warning to Humanity' and what we can do
A year ago, we revisited the 1992 “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.” Signed by a majority of Nobel laureates in sciences at the time and more than 1,700 leading scientists worldwide, the document warned, “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.” It called for a new ethic that encompasses our...
Quitnow BC offers smoking cessation tips at the Nelson Library
Mark Twain famously said: “Giving up smoking is easy. I've done it hundreds of times.” Most folks who still light up have tried to quit at least once. Each year in Canada, National Non-Smoking Week (January 15 – 21) gives smokers a fresh chance to hang up the habit. On Tuesday, January 16, at 7 p.m, the Nelson Library will ...
