Saskatchewan doctors and patients have received a warning from the province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner about the offer from an Ontario-based company to store patient records, which might not be in compliance with provincial law.

The advisory is in relation to DOCUdavit Services Inc. (DSI), a service that copies, stores and transfers patient records. The company has been sending letters to Saskatchewan patients advising them that their medical records are now with the company.

Alberta's health agency has been directed by the province's Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky to release a complete report of medical errors at Calgary's children's hospital, within 10 days.

A review at the Alberta Children's Hospital found poor communication and improper use of equipment led to four patient-care mistakes, including two non-lethal drug overdoses mistakes last year.

The past four years have seen the rates of tuberculosis sky-rocketing among Inuit and First Nations communities in Canada, and aboriginal leaders want the government to act.

In order to keep the nurses and operating room (OR) staff employed and services intact at the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH), surgeons and anesthetists have offered to help pay from their own pockets.

The Interior Health Authority (IH) announced January that in April it will cut back on shifts in KBRH for operating room nurses, including reducing OR days from 20 to 16 each week to save money.

This is the latest attempt to reduce the impact of cutbacks in the KBRH’s OR, including findings ways for ensuring a level of quality care at the hospital.

As debates resumed after the holiday break, the Quebec national assembly Tuesday saw the question period dominated with concern over delayed surgeries and overcrowded emergency rooms.

The recent deaths of two patients, one for heart surgery and the other who spent four days on a stretcher in ER waiting for a bed, has grabbed everyone’s attention. The arrival of Mariette Fournier in the emergency room at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal on 18th February, saw it at 200% capacity.

The Vancouver Sun reports a widespread food recall in the USA and Canada over salmonella contamination found in the popular flavour enhancer i. e. hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), added to a wide range of processed foods from dips to chips to frozen dinners.

So far, 56 products containing salmonella contaminated HPV have been recalled in the US, with two in Canada.

Last week, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said the recall is expected to widen, with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirming it to be one of the largest food recalls in North America.

The public have received a warning from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regarding the consumption of pretzel products believed to be contaminated with the salmonella virus.

These pretzel products are believed to contain hydrolysed vegetable protein (HPV) manufactured by Las Vegas based Basic Food Flavours, Inc. whose HPV products are under recall due to salmonella contamination.

The following products distributed across Canada but manufactured in the USA have been affected by this alert.

· H. K. Anderson, Pretzel Bites, 9 oz. Honey Mustard. UPC code 070271 00130 3.

CEO Vickie Kaminski, head of Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest health authority said Friday, she was not informed in time about how the drug cyclosporine was being administered by the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s.

According to Kaminski, she only learnt about some hospital patients receiving a wrong dose of the drug, eleven days after staff received a warning about the problem from a nurse.