Ottawa heart surgeons will make monthly trips to N.L. to help deal with backlog, says Eastern Health
CBC
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is looking outside the province for help with its months-long wait-list for cardiac surgery.
Eastern Health has reached an agreement with the Heart Institute at the University of Ottawa that will either bring Ottawa surgeons to Newfoundland and Labrador or send patients to Ottawa for surgery.
"We just need a little bit of help right now," said Premier Andrew Furey on Thursday, announcing the agreement.
Surgeons from the Ottawa Heart Institute will make monthly trips to Newfoundland and Labrador. Eastern Health CEO David Diamond said patients will also be sent to Ottawa for surgery as a "temporary measure" to deal with the backlog of about 150 heart surgeries.
Neither of those measures are entirely new.
Eastern Health has been relying on doctors from Ottawa to deal with a shortage of heart surgeons in Newfoundland and Labrador since 2020, and patients from the province are already routinely sent to Ottawa for complex surgeries like heart transplants.
For Eastern Health's clinical chief of cardiac care, Dr. Sean Connors, an acceptable wait-list would consist of 50 to 60 patients — or about six weeks for outpatient surgeries.
"What we'd like to do is to be able to give someone a date for their surgery," he said.
Connors said the partnership with the Ottawa Heart Institute will give cardiac care in Newfoundland and Labrador extra capacity and flow for patients. The agreement is for five years but is renewable, said Connors.
According to Connors, there are currently 13 cardiologists and three heart surgeons in Newfoundland and Labrador. One of those surgeons recently resigned, but another is arriving July 1.
Connors said Eastern Health is looking to add a fourth surgeon to its roster.
Interim Progressive Conservative Leader David Brazil said he's in favour of the partnership but was underwhelmed by Thursday's announcement.
"We literally thought — I was actually excited — thought it was going to be the announcement of the cardiac centre of excellence that Dr. Connors and his team have been lobbying for," he said.
Connors told reporters he'd "love to see" a Newfoundland and Labrador cardiac institute, saying it could look like Eastern Health's existing cancer-care program.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.
Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade first started on Saint-Paul Street in 1824, and a couple centuries later, this annual tradition is still going strong.
A congregation in Carman, Man., is coming to grips with the loss of their Anglican Lutheran church, a fixture in the community that was ravaged by a fire on Thursday.
Kayla DeMong fought tears as she described the dire conditions on the front lines, pleading for more help from the province as staff at the harm reduction site she leads try to keep up with the recent spike in overdoses.
A B.C. woman who has been detained by U.S. immigration officials for 11 days, after trying to enter the country, will be released on Friday, according to her father.
Toronto is doubling the number of automated speed cameras on city streets.
Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is alleging the former CEO of Alberta Health Services was unwilling and unable to implement the government's plan to break up the health authority, became "infatuated" with her internal investigation into private surgical contracts and made "incendiary and inaccurate allegations about political intrigue and impropriety" before she was fired in January.
Hudson's Bay Company filed for creditor protection last week, saying it's struggling to pay landlords, vendors and employees — and it's a process that could lead to the sale or closure of Canada's oldest company.
Still sleepy from this week's time change?