News - Health

The Manitoba government is investing $2 million to protect nurses, doctors, technologists, health-care aides and other health-care staff from workplace violence as well as rolling out a new provincial violence-prevention policy for all health facilities.

New investments in Budget 2013 will help train more nurses to meet the growing demand for health care across the province, Premier Greg Selinger announced.

Manitoba’s hip and knee wait-list has been cut by 40 percent since 2011, thanks to the hard work of orthopedic surgeons, nurses and other health professionals.

The role of nurse practitioners in the delivery of health care to Manitobans has been expanded to allow them to independently authorize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnostic tests for their patients.

The province is providing more than 1,000 free defibrillators to public places to ensure the life saving help cardiac arrest victims need is nearby.

The provincial government has introduced new legislative amendments that would better protect the privacy of Manitobans by making it an offence for an employee to use or access personal health information without authorization or to falsify that information.

To ensure cancer patients receive the fastest treatment in Canada, the provincial government is adding 50 new health professionals and launching four new regional CancerCare hubs in rural Manitoba, including one in Steinbach.

An assistant professor with the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture reports the prospects of improving the productivity of swine barn workers by reducing their risk of injury is generating a lot of interest.

Regional health authorities, Diagnostic Services Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba are now required to be accredited by an approved, independent quality and safety organization and must now post their accreditation results online to improve accountability and transparency.

Health Canada has declared Novartis products Agriflu and Fluad influenza vaccines safe for use.