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April 28, 2016 - 9:37am

This past week the co-founder of Bloodwatch.org, Kat Lanteigne, was in Halifax as part of a cross-country educational tour. Lanteigne’s trip included a public event co-sponsored by the NS Health Network and Council of Canadians as well a press conference with the NS-NDP Health Critic, Dave Wilson. Lanteigne and Wilson urged the Premier Stephen McNeil and the NS Liberals to vote on and pass Bill 43 - the Voluntary Blood Donations Act. “Nova Scotians do not want to see corporation buying and selling blood and plasma. Paying for plasma is a slippery slope” said Wilson.

Mar 30, 2015

NS slims down to one health board, Alberta goes back to tenThe Alberta and Nova Scotia governments are moving in opposite directions when it comes to administering health care. Information Morning speaks with our health consultant Mary Jane Hampton.

Jan 19, 2016

HALIFAX – CUPE NS President Mike McNeil is urging the province’s health minister, Leo Glavine, to support a new Health Accord at the upcoming meeting of ministers in Vancouver. McNeil says he’s written Glavine on behalf of his more than 19,000 members here in Nova Scotia to let him know CUPE is encouraged by the commitment of the new federal government to negotiate a new accord.  

Mar 3, 2016

Halifax, NS - CUPE Home Support Workers from across Nova Scotia gathered in New Glasgow recently and say they are cautiously optimistic now that the provincial government has backed off plans to put their agency contracts out to private tender.

CUPE Nova Scotia President Danny Cavanagh responded to the provincial government's request for input on proposed changes to the Nova Scotia Health Services and Insurance Act.

urges the province to take further steps

fully establish all five criteria of the Canada Health Act in the body of the legislation; strengthen the rules against conflict of interest in a number of areas; prohibit physicians from opting out of the public system, following Ontario's example; prohibit private insurance for public insured services, as five other provinces do; establish a democratic and evidence-based process for decisions on public health insurance coverage; continue moving away from fee-for-service physician payment by expanding community health centres; strengthen the audit provisions for all publicly-funded health care programs; prohibit the co-mingling of insured and uninsured services; regulate block fees, a significant access barrier; strengthen the rules against queue jumping, using the Ontario model; implement a complete patient safety program and healthcare associated infection strategy, building on the government's first steps around public reporting; introduce minimum staff to patient ratios to improve quality and patient outcomes; include robust whistleblower protection; end the contracting-out of hospital services to private clinics, a practice that diverts public dollars from care to profit and drains professionals from the public system.

Apr 7, 2014

The NS Liberal Government’s attack on collective bargaining What you need to know about Bills 30 and 37 – Essential Services Legislation Nova Scotia’s Liberal Government has now passed two laws – Bills 30 and 37 – that represent an unprecedented attack on our bargaining rights.  These bills essentially take away our right to free collective bargaining and stack the deck heavily in the employers’ favour. Bill 30 This was the first of the two Bills passed by the Legislature and was aimed at home support workers.  It affects five of our locals, 3936, 3885, 3953, 3986 and 4354 but will now be superseded by Bill 37. CUPE has already launched a legal challenge on Bill 30. Bill 37 On Friday, April 4 after almost a full week of debates and delaying tactics in the Legislature, the Liberals used their majority to ram through a second law, Bill 37. This bill is sweeping in its scope, forcing essential service agreements on almost 40,000 health care AND community services workers in seven different unions. For CUPE, it means some 9,000 members – basically half of our provincial membership – have just had their bargaining rights trampled on.  Here is who Bill 37 affects:

Apr 23, 2014

week on behalf of the hundreds of clerical and administrative staff who work in hospitals across Nova Scotia. These hard-working women and men play a critical role in our province’s health care system. On this day, we take a moment to commend them for their commitment and dedication to the health and wellness of Nova Scotians! Look for this print ad in daily newspapers across the province today.

At their recent annual general meeting, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia announced that they are getting ready for the privatization of health care. They will look at ways to regulate private health care as part of their strategic two year plan.

Scotia Surgery's latest renewal is for 18 months. #cbcns # ... @capital_health quietly renewed $1M contract with health firm last March

'I absolutely believe in 100 per cent transparency of any death,' says Health Minister Leo Glavine

May 02, 2016

Nova Scotia Health Minister Leo Glavine says all violent deaths at nursing homes should be publicly disclosed, comments that come after it was revealed there were more such deaths in the province in the last eight years than previously reported. 

Here are the documents related to the four health care unions’ proposal to the McNeil Government on a new bargaining model for acute care. For a quick summary read documents 1 and 2. CUPE has been represented in these talks by Acute Care Co-ordinator Wayne Thomas, Regional Director Jacquie Bramwell and CUPE NS President Danny Cavanagh. There will be a telephone town hall on Tuesday, September 16 at 7pm on this issue. If you don’t receive a call by 7pm, you can call in at 1-888-987-3602. Contact you local union to find out more.

The Improving Patient Safety and Health System Accountability Act will require district health authorities and the IWK Health Centre to report publicly and to the Department of Health and Wellness on a number of patient safety indicators beginning with the hand hygiene adherence rates. Other indicators, including rates of infections will be added in the future.

The legislation is an important step towards developing a provincial surveillance program that will track and monitor key infection rates and other patient safety indicators.

Ontario introduced similar reporting requirements in 2008.