I'd like to paint a picture for you, explaining why, in my opinion, this region enjoys sub-par health services: Imagine, if you would, that you're the BC Minister of Health. You oversee five health authorities, with 16 health services delivery areas under them, all of them clamouring for a finite pool of funding and resources....

Trail has chosen to opt out of a process initiated by the City of Castlegar to create a region-wide strategic plan for health care in the region. Castlegar contracted, at the cost of about $20,000, the services of consultant Jim Gustafson (formerly the CAO of the RDCK and, before that, Castlegar) to gather information from ...

Dear Editor, We are third year nursing students at UBC-Okanagan and are writing in regard to the growing amount of flavoured tobacco products available today. With National Non-Smoking Week upon us, we feel it is important to address this concern specifically because of the way these products are being marketed towards youth....

A fatal fish virus has been detected in the Kootenay Lake Kokanee raised in the Meadow Creek and Redfish spawning channels. Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNv) was found in 80 percent of spawning Kokanee in a routine check of the fish coming from the Meadow Creek spawning channel last fall. The virus has also been...

A petition is circulating in Kaslo that health care advocates in the community hope will help keep full-time emergency care at the local Victorian Community Health Centre, despite a decision by Interior Health to cut back emergency care in the community to business hours on weekdays.  In December 2013 a group of local doctors came […]

We are third year nursing students at UBC-Okanagan and are writing in regard to the growing amount of flavoured tobacco products available today. With National Non-Smoking Week upon us, we feel it is important to address this concern specifically because of the way these products are being marketed towards youth. When you...

A new year is a great opportunity to share my enthusiasm for my commitment to work hard for British Columbia’s seniors and their families. As Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors, I look forward to continuing to connect with as many British Columbians as I can throughout the province. What better time to reconnect with B.C.’s...

By Suzy Hamilton, The Nelson Daily Good-bye smokers, hello vapers. E-cigarettes have hit the Kootenays and are not expected to be leaving any time soon as sales of the latest tobacco alternate soar. For Nelson resident Scott Kerr, vaping means his lungs don’t hurt and his head is not as “cloudy.” “I’ve dropped from 14 […]

Got an emergency or see and accident or a crime . . . then call 9-1-1. Experience flu-like symptoms . . . dial up 8-1-1. The Ministry of Health is asking people that may have the influenza to dial up the new number feeling highly infectious cases could put others, at the hospital emergency room, clinic or doctor's office, at...

By Suzy Hamilton, The Nelson Daily You wouldn’t drive in the winter without snow tires and you shouldn’t neglect a flu shot if you want to be safe. That’s the warning from Dr. Rob Parker, Medical Health Officer with Interior Health. “Our main concern is that people are getting sick unnecessarily,” said Parker,. “There is still...