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Health Care

May 8, 2024admin

Opinion: The crisis in health care staffing is no secret – so don’t try to hide the gruesome data

Statistics Canada data show there are currently 91,900 vacancies in the health sector – the bulk of those are for nurses and PSWs.Alex Lupul/The Canadian Press

There is a sickness in Canada’s health care system called secrecy.

The latest glaring example is the determined effort by the Ontario government to keep its data on the province’s shortages of physicians, nurses and personal support workers from the public eye.

Back in 2022, Global News filed a freedom of information request for Ontario’s projections for its health worker shortages, which were included in briefing notes for Health Minister Sylvia Jones.

The government declined to voluntarily make public the nine-page document, entitled “Health Human Resources Overview.” Releasing it would have been the smart thing to do because no one would have blinked an eye – that there are severe staffing shortages in the health system is hardly news.

Instead, the Ministry of Health provided a redacted document containing virtually no numbers.

Global News appealed the decision to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and, after a protracted dispute, an adjudicator ruled in favour of the government.

The best one can say about the decision is that it is lacking in logic.

The adjudicator, Alec Fadel, acknowledged that there is “compelling public interest” in releasing the figures (and should have stopped there). But Mr. Fadel went on to say that releasing the data would have a negative impact on the ability of the government to negotiate with doctors, nurses, personal support workers and staffing agencies.

In arguing for secrecy, the government cited section 18(1)(c) of Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, claiming that releasing the data would be “injurious to the financial interests of the government or the ability of the government to

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Health Advice

April 21, 2024admin

Why Don’t More People Repair Their Clothes?

In Get Your Greens, an ongoing series marking Earth Month, British Vogue explores how the industry is advancing towards a greener future.

Repairing our clothes is essential in order to increase the lifespan of our garments, and to stop them from ending up in landfill. In fact, a study by UK textiles charity WRAP found that 30 per cent of people have garments in their wardrobe that they no longer wear because they need to be fixed. Meanwhile, a separate US survey found out that the majority of people rarely or never repair their clothes.

That’s why Sojo, a UK-based repair platform, is launching the Pledge To Repair campaign, which calls for the British fashion industry to back care and repair services. “What I realised is that brands doing their own pilot repair programmes isn’t ultimately going to change the industry in the way that we need,” founder Josephine Philips tells Vogue. “How can we get more brands on board and also get [more] citizens involved?”

So far, brands including Ganni, Rejina Pyo, Ahluwalia and Nanushka have signed the pledge, which is also backed by the British Fashion Council (BFC). Only companies that offer a UK-wide repair service that’s clearly communicated are able to sign on – ensuring that supporters are genuinely committed. “We’re seeing some brands do repairs in one shop and unfortunately, that’s not where you’re going to get the scale of people using repair,” Philips says of why this is an important aspect of the pledge.

Accessibility is one issue that Sojo is trying to solve via its app, which allows customers to book the service they need online. After that, your item is collected from your door (or you take it to a designated drop-off point), the repair or alteration is carried out, and then

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Health Care

February 10, 2024admin

Don’t have a family doctor in B.C.? Here are your options

From ERs to UPCCs and 811, here’s where else you can get care in B.C. if you don’t have a family doctor.

Published Feb 05, 2024 • 3 minute read

Patients visit the North Vancouver Urgent & Primary Care Centre at 221 West Esplanade. Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG

Nearly one million people in B.C. don’t have a family doctor — roughly one in five.

Health experts say having a primary care provider is better as they can get to know you and your medical history, monitor changes in your health through the years and provide continuity of care.

Article content

The B.C. College of Family Physicians suggest ways to look for family doctors, including:

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Department Health

February 9, 2024admin

COVID hospitalizations fall but don’t let your guard down

PROVIDENCE – The COVID-19 admission level at Rhode Island hospitals has dropped from “medium” to “low,” but that doesn’t mean Rhode Islanders should let their guard down, according to the state Department of Health.

“Rates of COVID-19 still elevated throughout Rhode Island. We are still seeing hundreds of people hospitalized every month because of COVID-19,” said Joseph Wendelken, spokesman for the health department.

The holidays sparked an increase in COVID cases, and the state’s hospital admission level was increased from “low” to “medium” on Jan. 5. It fell back to “low” on Jan. 26, according to the health department.

The health department says it uses hospital admission levels as a tool to measure COVID risk statewide. It characterizes levels as “low,” “medium” or “high” based on the state’s population. “Low” means hospital admissions are below 10 per 100,000 Rhode Islanders per week.

In December, Rhode Island hospitals had 401 admissions for COVID-19, according to the health department. In January, the number was 368, but the health department notes that January data is still being collected, so that number could change.

More:Post-holiday COVID surge has forced local hospitals to reinstate masking policies

How many people in Rhode Island died from COVID-19 in January?

In December, Rhode Island had 22 deaths from COVID. In January, the state had 36 COVID deaths. (Again, the health department notes that the January data is still being collected.)

With the increase in admissions last month, Lifespan and Care New England hospitals reinstituted masking requirements. Those requirements are still in place.

This graphic from the Rhode Island Department of Health shows the number of COVID-19 deaths each month.

“Mask requirements remain at Care New England hospitals and within any of our medical buildings where patients may be present,” said Doreen Scanlon Gavigan, public relations manager for Care New England. “We are still seeing a significant number of respiratory illnesses in our community, although

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Health Advice

January 28, 2024admin

Opinion: Don’t take Abela’s health advice

Robert Abela bragged that the prices of 15 food categories will be slashed by 15% from 1 February.

Lovin Malta asked Abela: “People are already saying that the food categories could have been healthier. There are french fries and no fresh produce. How do you reply?”

“I cannot agree with that criticism,” the prime minister replied.

Abela had a golden opportunity to nudge the most obese population in Europe to adopt healthier dietary choices. He could have chosen to reduce the price of foods highly recommended by the World Health Organisation for better health: fresh fruit and vegetables, legumes, whole grains and fresh fish. But none of those are on Abela’s list.

Instead, Abela reduced the price of french fries and corned beef. Corned beef, for crying out loud.

Corned beef is a processed food, high in the most deadly saturated fat, salt and cholesterol. That’s the fat that clogs up arteries and is responsible for the majority of deaths in this country through heart attacks and strokes. It’s also responsible for clogged leg arteries, causing limb loss.

Corned beef is a world away from fresh fish, fruit and vegetables.

Abela’s also bringing down the price of french fries to encourage more of our obese children to become super-obese. Malta has an obesity crisis, with 39.4% of our children and adolescents, according to a 2022 study, being overweight or obese, and yet Abela’s reducing the price of friable frozen french fries.

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that eating french fries twice weekly doubles your mortality risk. That’s not surprising as French fries contain trans-fats, which pose serious health risks.

The World Health Organisation warns that “Industrially produced trans-fats are not part of a healthy diet and should be avoided”.

French fries are

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Health Advice

December 21, 2023admin

Inside the landfill of fast-fashion: “These clothes don’t even come from here”

This holiday shopping season, environmental groups are asking shoppers to reconsider buying cheaper fast-fashion items that may only get a few uses. These items often end up discarded quickly, harming the environment.

In Chile, a massive landfill of used clothing from around the world keeps growing, causing damage to the environment and the communities that live there.

The mountain can be found just 30 minutes away from Iquique, a port city known for its beaches and trade. It’s an illegal landfill, and one of the biggest in the area. By one estimate, there are at least 30,000 tons of waste in the pile.

“It’s sad, because these clothes don’t even come from here,” said Angela Astudillo, who lives in Alto Hosipicio, one of the cities near the landfill.

1216-satmo-clothinglandfill-bojorquez-2533039-640x360.jpg — The landfill near Alto Hosipicio.

CBS Saturday Morning

Inside the pile were clothes made all over the world and sold in the United States, including menswear from Alabama, H&M clothing made in Pakistan, and even a graduation sash from a high school in New Jersey. The second-hand items are mostly trash, Astudillo said, and it’s not the world she wants her daughter to inherit.

The United Nations found that Chile received 126,000 tons of used clothing in textiles in 2021. The majority of those clothes came from the European Union, China and the United States. Just a quarter of those used clothes were re-sold, with most ending up in illegal landfills.

The U.N. report said the problems were caused by “fast fashion” and “unregulated overproduction and overconsumption on a global scale.” African countries like Senegal and Ghana have similar problems.

The draw for importers to Chile is ports like those in Iquique, meaning little to no taxes are charged, but what people don’t use ends up illegally dumped. Jamie Soto, the general

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Health Advice

December 19, 2023admin

Production volumes: Why don’t we know how many clothes fashion produces every year?

To become a Vogue Business Member and receive the Sustainability Edit newsletter, click here.

How can fashion tackle its waste problem if no one knows how much clothing is produced in the first place?

This is the question The Or Foundation is posing with its Speak Volumes campaign, which launched last month and calls on fashion brands — large and small, fast and slow, old and new — to publish their 2022 production volumes. “If we are going to clean up fashion’s waste crisis, develop data-driven policies and transition from a linear to a circular economy, we need to know how many garments are produced every year,” the campaign’s website says. “But this data is currently unavailable.”

The Or has gotten some response: Collina Strada reported producing 20,000 pieces in 2022, while Asket said it produced 231,383 pieces, Finisterre 450,643 and Lucy & Yak 760,951.

The major brands and retailers that dominate the fashion cycle have been far quieter. For Liz Ricketts, co-founder and executive director of The Or Foundation, what that says is that the industry is scared to disclose the information being asked of it. “There are many reasons for brands to be afraid of publishing this information, but one reason is how legible it is to the public,” she says. “The average person might not understand an LCA [lifecycle analysis report] or supply chain data, but any person can understand production volume numbers. It’s scary to put information out there that’s so transparently legible.”

If the campaign sounds gimmicky, it’s not because the call for production volume transparency is trivial but because the industry is so far from providing that transparency that it can seem unrealistic to even ask for it. That’s operating on the industry’s terms, though, and not those of the planet or the communities

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Health Advice

October 27, 2023admin

Don’t Call These Clothes Minimalist. Or Quiet Luxury for That Matter.

“Quiet luxury, oh God,” Isabel Wilkinson Schor, the designer of Attersee, said with a small sigh. “I don’t consider us a part of that trend at all. It’s been around for a very long time, and it’s equated with minimalism. I don’t see what we are doing as minimalism.”

Attersee, which Ms. Wilkinson Schor founded in 2021, is known for the kinds of high quality, strokeable fabrics associated with the trend. The clothes are classic in that they are not meant to easily go out of style, but do have quirks: a knit tube wrap as an alternative to a cardigan, a print of figure drawings, a plissé silk cape dress and caftans for summer and winter.

The impetus for the line was simply to find everyday clothes that were comfortable and beautiful, not the kind of thing that would be worn only to a big event once a year. There are oversize collarless shirts in a silk-cashmere blend for $525, sculpted duchesse satin vests for $725 and linen-cotton Mary Janes made in collaboration with the Italian shoemaker Drogheria Crivellini for $175.

This week Attersee, which is named after an Austrian lake where the artist Gustav Klimt spent summers, is opening its first public showroom, in a former fitness studio on the Upper East Side. It is a working space for Ms. Wilkinson Schor and her employees as well as an appointment-only place for customers to see and try on the clothes in person.

Ms. Wilkinson Schor, the former digital director of T magazine, grew up on East 19th Street in Manhattan, eating at Veselka and shopping at Love Saves the Day. Until she moved to the Upper East Side in 2020, she had lived downtown for her entire life.

Moving didn’t change how she dressed, she said: “I don’t

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Health Advice

October 4, 2023admin

Health advice: Epsom salts baths don’t cause kidney stones

Are epsom salts absorbed through the skin, and if so, is a cup of salts in the bath harmful? And can they cause kidney stones?

Dear Dr. Roach: In the winter, I enjoy an occasional soak in a hot bath, especially when my muscles ache after a hard day, and I often add a cup or more of Epsom salts. These seem to make the bath even more soothing and therapeutic, and I feel especially clean afterward.

Am I crazy, or is there something to this? I’m wondering about the chemistry. Are these salts absorbed through the skin, and if so, isn’t a cup of salt rather harmful? And can they cause kidney stones? I had one of those last year and wonder if this had anything to do with it.

J.G.

Magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) is used by many people as a soak and for purported health benefits. Many people feel that they make the bath especially relaxing. While magnesium is a critically important salt, we get the magnesium we need through food nearly all the time, while magnesium supplementation is necessary on occasion, such as in people taking certain diuretics.

However, although there may be some small absorption, magnesium is not at all well-absorbed through the skin, so there is neither harm nor benefit to soaking in Epsom salts. A cup is a commonly recommended amount of Epsom salt to add to a bath.

Sodium chloride (table salt) definitely increases the risk of kidney stones when taken by mouth, but magnesium does not. You can enjoy your Epsom salt bath without fear.

Dear Dr. Roach: At 63, I’m familiar with age-related loss of elasticity, most noticeably with my skin. I’ve assumed that it was occurring all throughout my body. I hadn’t really worried about having to urinate three

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Health Advice

September 24, 2023admin

‘They’re meaningless’: why women’s clothing sizes don’t measure up | Fashion

In my wardrobe, I have a long Cos dress with a label that reads XS. A similar style from Doen is labelled M – theoretically a whole two sizes up, while a Topshop dress that always feels a little on the large side is labelled a 6. Weird. A vintage mini that I can’t get on without undoing the zip is a 14, and two Asos denim jumpsuits are an 8 and a 10 respectively – and don’t even get me started on jeans. Despite this, all these clothes fit just fine.

The size and shape of my body has remained more or less the same for years – it’s the ability to know whether or not a purchase will fit that has fluctuated. Ask any woman, and they’ll tell you that finding the perfect T-shirt in, say, a size 10 from one brand doesn’t mean you’ll fit size 10 T-shirts everywhere. You may not even fit other size 10 T-shirts from the same shop. What’s behind this sizing debacle?

In the UK, more than a fifth of all clothes bought online are sent back. According to the British Fashion Council, incorrect sizing or fit was the top reason for returns (93%). Whenever I return a purchase, retailers want to know why. Was an incorrect item received? Was it damaged? Did I order more than one size? Or did the size ordered not fit? Usually, for me, it’s the latter.

“I think it would be better to get rid of sizes 10, 12, 14, 16 – they’re meaningless,” says Simeon Gill, senior lecturer in fashion technology at the University of Manchester. “Let’s move into a bust, waist, hip system – that’s essentially what online retail is doing. It’s just that it’s also retained this outmoded idea of 10,

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How many people in Rhode Island died from COVID-19 in January?