Fashion’s environmental toll: urgent calls for change

Health Advice

May 12, 2024admin

Fashion’s environmental toll: urgent calls for change

Fashion is a huge part of us as people and is a reflection of our beliefs and cultural expressions, but it has quickly turned into something that significantly endangers the environment. This year’s Earth Day on the 22nd of focused on the theme, ‘planet vs. plastics.’ The goal was to advocate for widespread awareness on the health risks of plastics, rapidly phase out all single-use plastics, urgently push for a strong UN treaty on plastic pollution, and demand an end to fast fashion.

The fast fashion industry operates on a ‘race to the bottom’ model to produce the greatest number of garments at the lowest price. With cheap production, lowered costs and societal pressure to constantly consume clothing, fashion’s numbers are staggering: 100 billion garments made annually, 87% ending in landfills or incinerators and only 1% recycled.

Toxic textile processing pollutes freshwater systems harming connected ecosystems, and each year 200 million trees are razed for cellulosic fibres imperilling biodiversity. 69% of clothes are made from crude oil, and washing them accounts for 35% of the ocean’s microplastics. Microfibers are in the food chain, air, soil, and appear deep in our organs and our bloodstreams threatening our existence.

The textile and apparel industry plays an important role in the global economy by providing jobs and income. In Kenya, the sector is the third largest exporter after horticulture and tea. It contributes to the nation’s economy, representing 0.6% of GDP and accounting for 6% of the manufacturing sector. It earns 7% of the country’s total export earnings. New clothes are manufactured in the export processing zone (EPZ), exported to the US, UK, and EU, and then re-imported into Kenya as second hand clothes.

The EPZs are managed by the export processing zones authority (EPZA) whose board of directors comprises members appointed from

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Department Health

March 25, 2024admin

Edmonton fire department plans to respond to ‘urgent’ medical calls

Edmonton Fire Chief Joe Zatylny said 70 per cent of the 95,496 calls to Edmonton Fire Rescue Services (EFRS) in 2023 were medically related

Published Mar 19, 2024 • Last updated 5 days ago • 2 minute read

A fire truck outside Station One in downtown Edmonton. Photo by File photo /Postmedia Network

Edmonton’s fire department says it’s reducing its call burden by only responding to urgent medical needs as part of a plan to cut down the number of firefighters going to medical-related calls.

Edmonton Fire Chief Joe Zatylny provided a report to the community and public services committee on Monday. He said 70 per cent of the 95,496 calls to Edmonton Fire Rescue Services (EFRS) in 2023 were medically related. The service is projecting up to 80,000 medical calls per year by the end of 2024 — assuming the trend continues.

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Department Health

November 9, 2023admin

Virtual urgent care didn’t divert Ontario patients from ER visits during pandemic, study suggests

Virtual urgent care didn’t make a dent in diverting patients with less severe health problems from emergency departments during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, say physicians and researchers.

During the early days of COVID, when physical distancing was strongly encouraged, health care largely shifted to virtual delivery instead of face to face.

In Monday’s issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), Shelley McLeod, a clinical epidemiologist at Sinai Health and associate professor at the University of Toronto, and her team published a study that assessed more than 19,000 virtual urgent care visits across Ontario from December 2020 to September 2021.

The researchers looked at how ill patients were, their later in-person visits to an emergency department and outcomes at a mix of urban, pediatric and northern settings across the province.

No magic bullet for family health crisis

Of all those patients in the study, nearly 13 per cent went to emergency in person within three days of a virtual visit, and almost 22 per cent did so within a month of being seen via video call or by phone.

“We found no overall impact of the provincial [virtual urgent care] pilot program on both subsequent emergency department visits and hospital admissions, although an important percentage of [virtual care] patients subsequently attended an emergency department in person,” McLeod and her team wrote.

A virtual COVID-19 assessment over a computer. — A virtual COVID-19 assessment room in Toronto General Hospital. Doctors and nurses across Canada are now looking at what’s the best role for virtual care amid staffing crunches. (Supplied/University Health Network)

Young adults, city dwellers and those from higher-income neighbourhoods accessed virtual services, and those who already had a family physician or primary care provider accessed virtual services the most, the researchers found.

In the study, the mean patient age was 28 years, 60 per cent were female

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Department Health

November 8, 2023admin

Health care utilization and outcomes of patients seen by virtual urgent care versus in-person emergency department care

Abstract

Background: Virtual urgent care (VUC) is intended to support diversion of patients with low-acuity complaints and reduce the need for in-person emergency department visits. We aimed to describe subsequent health care utilization and outcomes of patients who used VUC compared with similar patients who had an in-person emergency department visit.

Methods: We used patient-level encounter data that were prospectively collected for patients using VUC services provided by 14 pilot programs in Ontario, Canada. We linked the data to provincial administrative databases to identify subsequent 30-day health care utilization and outcomes. We defined 2 subgroups of VUC users; those with a documented prompt referral to an emergency department by a VUC provider, and those without. We matched patients in each cohort to an equal number of patients presenting to an emergency department in person, based on encounter date, medical concern and the logit of a propensity score. For the subgroup of patients not promptly referred to an emergency department, we matched patients to those who were seen in an emergency department and then discharged home.

Results: Of the 19 595 patient VUC visits linked to administrative data, we matched 2129 patients promptly referred to the emergency department by a VUC provider to patients presenting to the emergency department in person. Index visit hospital admissions (9.4% v. 8.7%), 30-day emergency department visits (17.0% v. 17.5%), and hospital admissions (12.9% v. 11.0%) were similar between the groups. We matched 14 179 patients who were seen by a VUC provider with no documented referral to the emergency department. Patients seen by VUC were more likely to have a subsequent in-person emergency department visit within 72 hours (13.7% v. 7.0%), 7 days (16.5% v. 10.3%) and 30 days (21.9% v. 17.9%), but hospital admissions were similar within 72 hours (1.1% v. 1.3%), and higher

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Department Health

July 22, 2023admin

Urgent Care or the emergency department?

Warm weather is finally here, and while cold and flu season may be the last thing on our minds, summer recreation can bring a number of other health concerns. Bug bites, broken bones, sprains, allergies and heat stroke are all common health conditions that can occur when we least expect them. Knowing when and where to go in your time of need can help alleviate some of the stress that accompanies life’s unexpected illnesses or injuries. However, sometimes it’s difficult to determine if your condition warrants a trip to the emergency department or urgent care. Be prepared this summer by knowing the difference.

What is an emergency department?

Emergency departments (and their ambulance teams) are open 24/7 and are equipped to deal with the most severe conditions and traumas. Emergency medical service (EMS) providers help assess your condition, determine the severity and provide treatment or transfer if needed.

When to visit the emergency department

The emergency department should be used if you have a life- or limb-threatening condition. While this may seem fairly straightforward, these types of injuries or illnesses can come in many different forms and may be difficult to identify when you’re in the midst of a health emergency. Chest pain, signs of a stroke, poisoning, possible overdoses, head injuries and difficulty breathing are all conditions that warrant a trip to the emergency department or a call to 9-1-1. However, blurred or loss of vision, abdominal pain, sudden allergic reactions and fainting can also be considered life-threatening conditions, even if they seem more subtle than a significant trauma.

An urgent care or prompt care center provides you with the medical care you need when you need it. Staffed with physicians, advanced practice providers and nurses, urgent care teams deliver comprehensive

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Department Health

June 23, 2023admin

Minden to get new urgent care clinic a month after emergency department closes

Haliburton Highlands Health Services permanently closed Minden's emergency department on June 1, 2023. The Ontario government is providing funding to the Kawartha North Family Health Team to open an urgent care clinic at the same site to provide routine and urgent care to people in the community. The clinic will open on June 30 in time for the Canada Day long weekend. (Photo: Marit Stiles / Twitter) — Haliburton Highlands Health Services permanently closed Minden’s emergency department on June 1, 2023. The Ontario government is providing funding to the Kawartha North Family Health Team to open an urgent care clinic at the same site to provide routine and urgent care to people in the community. The clinic will open on June 30 in time for the Canada Day long weekend. (Photo: Marit Stiles / Twitter)

It’s not a replacement for the now-closed emergency department, but Minden is going to have a new urgent care clinic as of the end of June.

The Ontario government announced on Tuesday (June 20) it will be providing funding to the Kawartha North Family Health Team to open an urgent care clinic to provide routine and urgent care to people in the community.

According to the Kawartha North Family Health Team, urgent care services are for people who have unexpected but non-life-threatening health issues that usually require same-day treatment.

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The clinic will open in the former location of the Minden emergency department at 4575 Deep Bay Road, which Haliburton Highlands Health Services permanently closed on June 1 due to a lack of staffing after providing six weeks’ notice to the community.

Despite petitions and protests from Minden-area residents and local politicians urging a moratorium, the emergency department was closed, with all emergency services consolidated at the Haliburton hospital — located a minimum 25-minute drive away from Minden.

On May 31, the Kawartha North Family Health Team put forward an expression of interest to the Ministry of Health for funding to operate an urgent care clinic at the former Minden emergency department site.

“As a resident of Minden Hills myself, I realize the limitation of our resources and how stretched health care providers are, especially during the busy summer

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Health Care

June 18, 2023admin

Vancouver urgent care clinic suspends some services over legal battle with health authority

The day before Vancouver’s first urgent and primary care centre opened in 2018, the provincial government held a news conference celebrating the facility as a step toward improving the quality of health-care in the city.

“We want people to get the care they need in their community,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said that Sunday.

Less than five years later, that relationship has soured.

The clinic is deep into a legal battle that it says has ultimately forced doctors to stop providing patients with ultrasounds, X-rays and other critical diagnostic tests, despite having the equipment to do so in-house.

“Unfortunately, when our patients are coming to us at their most distressed state, we’re having to tell them that they can’t go and get the test done right now, even though we have the facilities down the hall,” said Dr. Eric Cadesky, a family physician and the chief medical officer for Seymour Health.

A tall white man in a blue, purple and white checked shirt stands in an empty medical lab. — Dr. Eric Cadesky is pictured in a vacant lab at the City Centre Clinic in Vancouver on June 13, 2023. He says the clinic has been running $2.1-million worth of tests each year. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

“We have to send them elsewhere. It’s heartbreaking for us.”

The issue at the heart of a B.C. Supreme Court case is a bitter fight over billing for those diagnostic services, which, according to court documents, has left the clinic’s owners vulnerable to a takeover with more than $10 million in debt.

B.C. approached Seymour Health for help

The saga started when the government approached Seymour Health, a private company, about launching an urgent and primary care clinic (UPCC) in Vancouver earlier in 2018. The company said the province wanted to emulate the success of its existing team-based clinic in the South Granville area.

Seymour Health eventually opened two UPCCs: the City Centre Clinic

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Health Advice

March 2, 2023admin

Strategic Advisory Group identifies a coordinated advocacy solution to handle urgent health and housing demands in Downtown Guelph

Guelph, Ont., February 27, 2023 – The Council-endorsed Strategic Advisory Team on downtown is discovering how to assistance Guelph’s most vulnerable as a result of a coordinated advocacy approach aimed at higher concentrations of federal government.

To support the advocacy perform, the City is endeavor a gap assessment for homelessness, addiction and mental well being companies in Guelph. The analysis will take into account investments and outputs of all a few stages of government—municipal provincial, and federal—as well as non-for-profit and other aid businesses. The effects could help suggestions as element of Guelph’s multi-yr budget and advise lengthy-expression procedure transformation operate essential to address wellness and housing requires.

Community fundraising to handle homelessness is ongoing as aspect of the Property for Excellent Marketing campaign. The marketing campaign aims to cut down the quantity of people today going through chronic homelessness by 50 for each cent, total a few tasks that lead 72 supportive housing models in Guelph, and build a fund to keep on locating progressive alternatives. The advisory team encourages people to take into consideration donating.

Mayor Cam Guthrie states, “We are in the midst of a housing disaster. This is an urgent scenario that calls for coordination from all levels of government, as properly as our corporation partners location-broad and our total neighborhood. The City of Guelph and Wellington County proceed to concentrate on new housing provide, but we require fiscal help to produce lasting housing speedier.”

Shakiba Shayani, Main Government Officer (CEO) of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce and co-chair of the advisory group, adds, “Homelessness, is a intricate situation, requiring short-term solutions to meet up with urgent wants as properly as system-amount transformation for prolonged-time period achievements. Housing, psychological well being and dependancy requires in our neighborhood have developed exponentially over the final few decades

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Tag: urgent

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B.C. approached Seymour Health for help