News/Canada/Nova Scotia

As anxiety grew among Nova Scotians over the fear of the arrival of COVID-19 in early March 2020, Premier Stephen McNeil wanted to meet with a public health official he barely knew.That person's name? Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health.Because Public Health operates independently of government, McNeil said there was a hesitance for the department to meet with his office.The two men were soon joined at the hip, providing daily news conferences discussing the state of the pandemic in the province, providing consistent messaging about what people should and shouldn't be doing.To mark the five-year anniversary of Nova Scotia's first presumptive COVID-19 cases, CBC News spoke with McNeil and Strang to get their thoughts on the province's early pandemic response, a...

Conversations are happening in Nova Scotia about developing the first midwifery education program east of Quebec.Documents released to CBC News under freedom of information laws show correspondence between provincial officials in recent months that mention Mount Saint Vincent University and Cape Breton University as possible locations.It's welcome news to midwives in Nova Scotia, who have been advocating for a midwifery education program for years."We need to be growing our own midwives here and we need to be supporting midwifery to grow," said Liz Fraser, a registered midwife and spokesperson for the Association of Nova Scotia Midwives, in an interview.She said having a midwifery school in Nova Scotia would create a pathway for new midwives, and it could act as a recruitment tool for midw...

Andrea Hancock says she understands that people are angry with her daughter — she's angry too — but she says the 19-year-old is also severely unwell, and she warned police, social workers, doctors, shelter workers, therapists — even the neighbours — that her daughter was dangerous.  "I said, 'Somebody is going to get hurt ... she's going to die or somebody will die,'" she said this week during an exclusive interview in her home in Greenfield, N.S., a rural community about 130 kilometres west of Halifax. She said her daughter, Elliott Chorny, has struggled with mental illness since she was a child. Chorny managed her condition with medication and therapy when she was younger, but her health declined while dealing with physical health problems, relentless — and sometimes violent — bullying, ...

Nova Scotia's health authority has signed a contract to bring in diagnostic imaging techs to help with backlogs for MRIs and ultrasounds.The health authority signed a one-year untendered contract with British Columbia-based ProMed HR Solutions in January, with an optional one-year extension. The contract, which could be worth as much as $17.9 million, is similar to those used with travel nurse agencies to address shortages among nursing ranks.The province's procurement rules allow the government to bypass public tenders in circumstances deemed to be urgent, specialized or exceptional.A spokesperson for Nova Scotia Health described the deal with ProMed as a "no-spend commitment standing offer.""It's a pay-as-you-go type of environment," Health Minister Michelle Thompson said in an interview...