News/Canada/Manitoba

An open letter from a group of Manitoba researchers has garnered support from hundreds of other scientists and academics across the country, sounding the alarm about the effects of research cuts in the U.S. on Canadian research and urging federal political leaders to take action.The letter, which was shared Friday and as of Tuesday afternoon had more than 750 signatures, said it comes "at a critical moment for global science.""The dramatic dismantling of research infrastructure in the United States, the world's historical leader in scientific investment, has left an international innovation vacuum," it says.Julie Lajoie, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba and one of the academics who wrote the letter, said the current climate in the U.S. has created "a unique moment in ti...

Doctors and residents in northern and rural Manitoba say health care in their communities must be a federal election priority this year, as emergency rooms continue to close and patients travel farther and longer for care.The emergency room at Morris General Hospital, 60 kilometres south of Winnipeg, closed indefinitely in September 2023. It's one of several rural Manitoba ERs to shutter in recent years due to health-care worker shortages."You can go there with somebody half dying, and all it's got is a thing on the door: The emergency's closed," said Eileen Klassen, 78, who lives down the road from the hospital."It's not the doctors or the nurses. They work hard."Eileen Klassen, who lives in Morris south of Winnipeg, says the local hospital's emergency room closure in 2023 concerns her, e...

A Winnipeg-born gynecologist and bestselling author says she's had enough with the United States, but she's also prescribing a stark warning for Canadian voters concerned about the future of their own reproductive health care.Dr. Jen Gunter, whose books include The Vagina Bible and The Menopause Manifesto, has long been an outspoken women's health advocate, working to dispel myths around women's sexual health and bodies, and combat online misinformation.She's lived in the United States for three decades, but now says she's moving back to Canada.While that was always part of the plan, Gunter says her decision was sped up by U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the Oval Office earlier this year."The absolute just gutting of health care, you know — it's day after day [that] we're hearing a...

The incurable medical condition that ended the professional hockey career of a first-round Winnipeg Jets draft pick is a disorder that's challenging to diagnose and sometimes difficult to treat, says a Manitoba doctor.Chaz Lucius, who signed a three-year contract with the Jets in 2022 and began his professional career playing with the Manitoba Moose in the 2022-23 season, announced Tuesday he was retiring from professional hockey after recently being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.The condition, also known as EDS, affects the body's connective tissue by causing an abnormality in the proteins that hold joints, tissues and organs together."People with EDS got the cheap dollar store glue, and everybody else got the crazy glue" to hold joints together, says Tammy Stadt, who lives with t...

Canada has a unique chance to become a medical and scientific powerhouse — if it moves quickly to scoop up professionals leaving the United States in the wake of health cuts and layoffs, the head of the Canadian Medical Association says.Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says American medical professionals often face two big barriers when trying to emigrate from the U.S. to Canada, as they "may need to go through immigration, or they may need to get their training — if they did some of it in the United States — recognized in Canada."Her organization is urging the federal government to ensure visas are fast-tracked for American physicians interested in moving north and other unnecessary steps in the immigration process "get removed so that we don't miss this win...

The Manitoba government says a program introducing advanced care paramedics at seven locations will improve medical care for emergencies throughout rural and northern Manitoba.Fourteen "clinical service leaders" trained in advanced care paramedicine have been strategically placed in Portage la Prairie, Flin Flon, Dauphin, Ashern, Neepawa, Swan River and Lac du Bonnet as part of the program, the government said in a release Wednesday.Advanced care paramedics' scope of practice is broader than other paramedics. They can perform advanced life support, respiratory and cardiac care procedures, and can give a wider range of medications.The province said the paramedics will respond to medical emergencies on rapid response vehicles but won't transport patients. It said their training will improve ...

A call from Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew for scientists in the U.S. to consider moving here has researchers in this province demanding more funding to give those who relocate a reason to stay.In an open letter to the provincial government, dozens of scientists, researchers and academics questioned how it expects to attract new talent, given cuts to the agency responsible for providing the bulk of research funding in Manitoba."Manitoba currently ranks last in Canada for provincial per capita research funding — a stark reality that contradicts the government's recent enthusiasm for attracting international researchers," states the letter, which by Monday evening had received nearly 250 signatures.The letter was spurred by comments Kinew made during a scrum with reporters at the Legislative Bui...

Retired nurse Valerie Alderson doesn't find herself thinking back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic anymore, but when someone brings it up, "it's a flashback of what has happened."That includes the death of her 82-year-old dad, Lloyd Hodgins, who was sent to the hospital after breaking his hip in a fall and died not long after of COVID-19 complications, in November 2021, "all alone, without anybody," because of pandemic rules at the time restricting hospital visitors. "Both my sister and I were vaccinated. We could have had our masks on, visors on, gown on, gloves on to be with him," said Alderson, 63."I always think it's important that when you have a loved one go … for someone to be there, whether it's to hold their hand, to wipe their face, to sing a song, to read poetry, whate...

Manitoba has become the first province to sign a pharmacare agreement with the federal government.The province will be getting $219 million over four years for universal coverage for diabetes medication, contraceptives and other medical supplies.Manitoba already covers prescription birth control, so coverage for the new remaining products will begin in June, the province said.The agreement will help close gaps in the health-care system, federal Health Minister Mark Holland said Thursday during the announcement at the Women's Health Clinic in Winnipeg."I want 100 years from now people to look back at this moment and say, 'This is where it started,' the journey of making sure everybody got the medication that they needed," he said.The federal government passed legislation setting the basis f...