After more hospital complaints, Higgs gets involved in health-care system — again
CBC
For the second time in just over two weeks, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has personally involved himself in a high-profile incident in the province's health-care system — again after it was made public in media reports.
Dave and Nancy Barnet had demanded answers last week about why their son John was discharged from the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton just hours after breaking his neck in a motorcycle crash.
Following their public complaints, Nancy Barnet said the premier called her and her husband at their home in Pictou, N.S.
She said Margaret Melanson, interim president and CEO of Horizon Health Network, also called and arranged to have a doctor examine John at home. He was later taken by ambulance to a hospital in Saint John.
John Barnet broke the C7 vertebra in his neck as well as his sternum, but was sent home after six hours of care in Fredericton. His parents wanted to know why he wasn't kept for at least 24 hours for observation of injuries that could have left him paralyzed.
Nancy Barnet said Higgs called twice over the weekend — first on Saturday and again on Sunday — and left voice messages, as she and her husband weren't home to answer the phone.
The move comes after a July 15 news conference during which Higgs, responding to the death of a man in the emergency department waiting room of the same hospital, said it wasn't up to him to run the health authorities but it was up to him "to ensure that the right people are in the positions to do so."
That incident prompted Higgs to fire the former president and CEO of Horizon Health and to replace its board of directors with a single trustee. He also replaced the province's health minister.
Horizon Health didn't answer questions about whether Higgs played a role in the followup care provided to Barnet.
In an emailed statement, Melanson said she felt it was important to personally follow up with Barnet to determine how he and his family were faring, and whether there was anything she could do to help.
Meanwhile, Nancy Barnet said they appreciate whatever the premier did.
"As a matter of fact, I'm planning to give [Higgs] a call myself today to thank him," she said. "I do believe that without his support, things may not have moved as quickly as they did."
Barnet declined to share what Higgs said in his voice messages.
She said her son has since been discharged from hospital in Saint John and is back home in Fredericton — in pain, but recovering.
Ontario legislation that mandated air conditioning in all resident rooms in long-term care (LTC) homes has saved dozens of lives, according to a new study.
Gusty winds, rapid fall in temperature prompt special weather statement for Waterloo region and area
The mid-week warmup in Waterloo region, Guelph and area will abruptly come to an end on Friday, Environment and Climate Change Canada warns.
Water in two more schools in the N.W.T. show lead levels above Health Canada's guidelines for drinking water, according to the territorial government.
Ontario's ethics watchdog says it will investigate whether the province's labour minister contravened any laws in his handling of a controversial training fund.
Mitchell Rose, the 32-year-old man charged with three counts of attempted murder in St. John’s, will spend the next month on the forensic unit of a psychiatric hospital.
Nearly eight years after Halifax sold the historic Khyber building in the hopes it could be revived, the municipality says the site has become a “threat to safety” — and is taking it back.
The New Brunswick government has a strategy for reducing chronic homelessness in the province by 40 per cent over the next three years, Housing Minister David Hickey said Thursday.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé is stepping down.
A Winnipeg mother whose kids attend Winnipeg School Division schools says officials waited too long to let parents know classes would be cancelled on Thursday amid a winter blizzard that created dangerous road conditions across the city.
After one day of calm, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says a second Alberta clipper storm will begin to hit western Saskatchewan early Friday morning.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government is increasing how much it costs to apply for a citizen-initiated referendum by 5,000 per cent, saying it's about making sure applicants are serious.
A special unit established to solve cold cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people has solved the murder of a B.C. man in Washington State nearly a decade ago.
A judge ruled Thursday to remove an injunction in place since the summer against Alberta's law prohibiting doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth.