Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and Health Minister Michelle Thompson are to meet today with leaders in the province’s health care sector.
The meeting is to include representatives from regulatory colleges, professional associations, educational institutions, unions and service providers.
It comes as pressure mounts to do something to address overcrowding and staff shortages in hospitals and emergency departments.
Both the premier and the minister are to make themselves available to the media after the meeting.
Nova Scotia’s Health Department has rejected a call for senior health bureaucrats to appear before the legislature’s health committee on Thursday.
The call was made yesterday by N-D-P Leader Claudia Chender who says an appearance is needed by Health Minister Michelle Thompson and health authority C-E-O Karen Oldfield given recent problems in provincial emergency departments.
However, the department says the pair can’t appear because they are “actively working on ways to support changes to the health care system and in emergency departments.”
It says they are attending a meeting with leaders in the province’s health care sector today, public consultations in Shelburne and Yarmouth tomorrow and are addressing the Halifax Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
Public health officials in Nova Scotia say 11 people died from COVID-19 last month.
As well, the province recorded just over three-thousand positive P-C-R test results and 165 hospitalizations.
The officials say the number of positive P-C-R tests and hospitalizations increased while the number of deaths decreased in December compared with the previous month.
Of the 11 deaths reported, 91 per cent were among people aged 70 or older.
People at highest risk of being exposed to the mpox virus can now book their next dose appointment for the Imvamune vaccine.
Nova Scotia Health will host three vaccine clinics at the Public Health offices in New Glasgow, Amherst, and Truro. The clinics will offer free first and second doses of the mpox vaccine. The clinics will be held:
New Glasgow Public Health office
Community Health Centre, 690 East River Rd., New Glasgow
Friday, Feb. 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Amherst Public Health office
18 South Albion St., Amherst
Friday, Feb. 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Truro Public Health office
600 Abenaki Rd., Level 1/Wind B, Truro
Thursday, Feb. 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
A Nova Scotia Supreme Court hearing where prosecutors are attempting to have Brian James Marriott declared a dangerous offender continues today.
The Halifax crime figure was convicted of aggravated assault in a 2019 jailhouse group beating of an inmate at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility.
During the hearing which began yesterday, the Crown called testimony about Marriott’s past violence at a high security prison in Quebec.
If found to be a dangerous offender, Marriott could be given an indeterminate sentence, where he could only be released with the permission of the National Parole Board.
