Featured Stories
Province, QEII Foundation Pledge $14 Million to reduce cancer care wait times
February 16, 2010
Cancer patients in Nova Scotia will get better care and shorter wait times thanks to the province's $10.1 million contribution to the radiation therapy project.The QEII Foundation also committed to raise $4 million for equipment for the Nova Scotia Cancer Centre at the QEII Health Sciences Centre.
The provincial investment will help expand the cancer centre, build new radiation therapy bunkers and buy new equipment.
"Partnerships like this one with the QEII Foundation will help the government to live within its means and continue to provide needed services," said Health Minister Maureen MacDonald.
Dr. Tetteh Ago, chief of radiation oncology for Capital Health, said the investment bodes well for the future of cancer care in Nova Scotia.
"This will enable us to provide world-class radiation treatment," said Dr. Ago. "It will help us meet our goal of making wait times for Nova Scotians requiring radiation treatment among the shortest in Canada."
Minister sends kudos to health-care workers
October 23, 2009
Health-care workers from across Nova Scotia have been working together to implement new technology will improve efficiency of scheduling surgery.Health Minister Maureen MacDonald recently congratulated a group of 25 health-care workers for their dedication to improving patient care.
The Operating Room Management staff of the Provincial Surgery Project came from every District Health Authority in the province. They are staff from staff from surgical services programs, who had been taking time out of their busy schedules to help implement the use of an Operating Room Information System that will help reduce wait times for surgeries in Nova Scotia.
The staff were thanked at a lunch in Halifax recently and the Minister provided a small token of her appreciation and gave them a card that said: "Thanks for going above and beyond!" The minister wrote a congratulatory note on each card and signed them.
In the first week of November, the Pictou County Health Authority will be the first DHA to use the software that will make scheduling surgery and managing daily operating room schedules much more efficient for DHA staff.
Remaining DHAs that do not have an Operating Room Information System will begin using the software this winter or next spring. By July of next year, every hospital in Nova Scotia where surgery is performed will be using an automated Operating Room Information System.