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files of interest on this site

MUHC
by NICOLAS STEINMETZ
STORIES
Smoke
Alzheimer
The Medical Web
Viagra & Sex
Drugs
David Levine case

westweb |------David T. Nicholson |-------Diana T. Nicholson

"It's not the men in your life that counts; it's the life in your men." - Mae West, I'm No Angel, 1933.

MUHC Interim Board

Medical clipings A collection of Latest Media stories
Friday 21 April 2000 Shriners Hospital moving New facility could be built next to McGill health centre AARON DERFEL After 75 years on the southern slope of Mount Royal, the Shriners Hospital for Children is moving to a new location and plans to build a facility that might cost up to $100 million. The likely site for the relocation is the former Glen Yards in the west end, where the McGill University Health Centre intends to build a superhospital by 2005.
Tuesday 21 March 2000 Probing PQ mindset on language DON MACPHERSON .. should hold off on any work on the Glen Yards site for its new superhospital for a few weeks, until after the Parti Quebecois convention in early May.

Saturday 19 February 2000

Nicolas Steinmetz in front of pictures of the Royal Victoria, Montreal General and Neurological hospitals.

The superhospital It will be a 'health park' nestled on a treed campus. But with fewer beds than the five hospitals it will replace, will it really offer better service? AARON DERFEL Most patients will be treated there in a single day with ultramodern equipment like "smart" lasers and robotic nanosurgery. Those in need of critical care will all find sanctuary in private rooms with a view.
The superhospital promoted by the McGill University Health Centre won't open until 2005, but it has already come under sharp criticism, in part because it will have far fewer beds than the institutions it will replace. Estimated to cost $850 million,.... slash the number of acute-care beds from the current 1,100 to as low as 680 in the new facility. Dr. Nicolas Steinmetz, the project's chief planner, insists that the superhospital can offer much better care with fewer beds because of anticipated improvements in efficiency and advances in medicine.
Friday 21 May 1999 Balance budgets in three years, hospitals told AARON DERFEL Health Minister Pauline Marois announced yesterday that she expects hospitals to balance their budgets within three years.
Saturday 1 May 1999 BioChem share price trimmed Sales, profits were up; downturn blamed on poor sales of drug that fights hepatitis B JAN RAVENSBERGEN (saved)
Tuesday 27 April 1999 Bouchard is no defender of English health care JENNIFER ROBINSON
Saturday 24 April 1999 Don't call the doctors Superhospital development proposal sends shock wave through 'hood by JOSH FREED
It's not every day you pick up the paper and find out your home is about to be swallowed by a hospital. But that's what happened to me last week when I looked at Page 1 of La Presse - and gasped. (saved) Monday 26 April 1999 Anglo access assailed PQ quells militants' call to scrap health-care law SEAN GORDON Complaining of too much English in the health-care system, a group of party hard-liners yesterday pressed the Parti Quebecois government to amend its law and scrap access plans for English-speaking Quebecers.

Sunday 14 February 1999 Care right now is first-rate. Discussion of reconfiguring some of McGill University's teaching hospitals and research institutes may be confusing and even threatening to patients, with their immediate concerns and fears for their health care. Public statements by administrators that, finally, Montrealers will experience modern medical care in 2004 are no doubt meant to instill enthusiasm for a project but have important implications for patients who are ill now, particularly with urgent and alarming diseases like cancer. by GERALD BATIST

Saturday 30 January 1999 $15 million for ERs Quebec invests funds as MDs protest against overcrowding SEAN GORDON and JEFF HEINRICH

Medical Databases and Super Hospitals Christopher C. Goodfellow MBA February 4 1999

Friday 29 January 1999 Health fight is old news by MICHEL DAVID Le Soleil
It was rather amusing to hear Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion say that Ottawa had no intention of invading the jurisdictions of the provinces.
To show his good faith, he said he was willing to write that promise on the health-care funding agreement that Premier Lucien Bouchard had just turned down categorically.

Tuesday 5 January 1999 Unhealthy trend Move to private health care has been growing rapidly - too fast for the comfort of patients in Quebec PHIL NOLIN (saved)

Friday 7 May 1999 Zyban cuts that craving Quit-smoking pill is Canada's best-selling prescription drug JEFF HEINRICH It's the first pill for quitting smoking, and its popularity is so great it has become the hottest-selling new prescription drug in Canada. Saturday 17 October 1998 French superhospital due by 2003 But it needs $307 million from Quebec JEFF HEINRICH A Montreal superhospital - a French one this time - could be born by 2003.
The architects' rough drafts are ready, the financial planning has been sketched out and the doctors and other professionals are on board.
But there's a big "if" that could scuttle the Universite de Montreal project: if the Quebec government doesn't follow through on a 1996 promise to foot two-thirds of the megahospital's $475-million bill, it won't be done.
And Quebec has to come up with the money in less than a month - $307 million by Nov. 12. 98 (saved)

[Editors note: David Theodore has first of three articles on the Super Hospital. Please keep these as the appear as we can't find them on the Gazette Web page and they will help you for a future Wednesday night on this subject. The second by Susan Bronson Jan 30, 99 can't be found on the Gazette site.]

Hugh Scott

Sunday 22 November 1998 They are recommending demolition of the Royal Victoria Hospital's newer buildings, though some are ingenious examples of Modern architecture, and turning the others into condominiums. A McGill professor argues that it's a mistake to change the vocation of this site from serving the public to providing luxury housing

Tuesday 19 January 1999 Health accord makes sense (saved)

Tuesday 12 January 1999 Hospitals blamed for cash waste by JEFF HEINRICH Quebec hospitals are wasting taxpayers' money by taking away basic work from community health centres qualified to do the job, an ex-deputy health minister said yesterday. (saved)

Tuesday 5 January 1999 Extra cash for hospital Cancer treatment to be centred at Montreal General AARON DERFEL (saved)

Wednesday 30 December 1998 73% still oppose project But most say research, care to improve, poll finds ..Almost three out of four Quebecers oppose McGill University's plan to close four big hospitals and build an $850-million "superhospital" by 2004, a poll indicates. JEFF HEINRICH (saved)

Wednesday 30 December 1998 Clear as Muck Almost the only thing we know for sure about the superhospital is its name Controversy is mounting over the planned McGill University Health Centre. Some English-speaking Montrealers, the project's core constituency, are asking whether the project, which would eliminate four existing hospitals, makes good sense. by HENRY AUBIN(saved)

Wednesday 28 October 1998 Unions want more say in superhospital Non-nursing staff at three French-language hospitals feel left out of plans for a Montreal superhospital that is to include their facilities. by MIKE KING (saved)

Questions on superhospital Public support for McGill University's proposed superhospital appears tepid. McGill says the facility's purpose is to serve Montrealers better. Yet, rightly or wrongly, many Montrealers appear hesitant. (saved)

Sunday 25 October 1998 Hospital plan panned Super-hospital is a waste of needed cash, patients say by UYEN VU (saved)

Friday 23 October 1998 Super-hospital site set Choice is CP Rail's centrally situated but polluted Glen Yards JEFF HEINRICH and ALLISON LAMPERT (saved)

Sunday 22 November 1998 They are recommending demolition of the Royal Victoria Hospital's newer buildings, though some are ingenious examples of Modern architecture, and turning the others into condominiums. A McGill professor argues that it's a mistake to change the vocation of this site from serving the public to providing luxury housing

Tuesday 12 January 1999 Hospitals blamed for cash waste by JEFF HEINRICH Quebec hospitals are wasting taxpayers' money by taking away basic work from community health centres qualified to do the job, an ex-deputy health minister said yesterday.

Wednesday 30 December 1998 73% still oppose project But most say research, care to improve, poll finds JEFF HEINRICH ..Almost three out of four Quebecers oppose McGill University's plan to close four big hospitals and build an $850-million "superhospital" by 2004, a poll indicates. (saved)

Wednesday 30 December 1998 Clear as Muck Almost the only thing we know for sure about the superhospital is its name by HENRY AUBIN Controversy is mounting over the planned McGill University Health Centre. Some English-speaking Montrealers, the project's core constituency, are asking whether the project, which would eliminate four existing hospitals, makes good sense. (saved)

Wednesday 30 December 1998 73% still oppose project But most say research, care to improve, poll finds JEFF HEINRICH Almost three out of four Quebecers oppose McGill University's plan to close four big hospitals and build an $850-million "superhospital" by 2004, a poll indicates. (saved)

Thursday 5 November 1998 McGill health centre makes it official CP Rail's Glen Yard will be site of superhospital MICHAEL MAINVILLE The McGill University Health Centre made it official yesterday - the site of the new anglophone superhospital will be the Glen Yard, bought from CP Rail for $23 million. (saved)

Wednesday 4 November 1998 U-turn on health care The Parti Quebecois government has decided that after four years of ferocious cuts to the province's health-care system, it will reinstate almost all the money it took out. (saved)

Friday 23 October 1998 Assembly drama masked plight of cancer victims JENNIFER ROBINSON Everyone can feel real sympathy for Finance Minister Bernard Landry. His wife has breast cancer, a disease that kills thousands of Canadian women each year. (saved)

Saturday 10 October 1998 I'd cancel health cutbacks: Charest SEAN GORDON (saved)

Wednesday 28 October 1998 Unions want more say in superhospital by MIKE KING Non-nursing staff at three French-language hospitals feel left out of plans for a Montreal superhospital that is to include their facilities.(saved)

Questions on superhospital Public support for McGill University's proposed superhospital appears tepid. McGill says the facility's purpose is to serve Montrealers better. Yet, rightly or wrongly, many Montrealers appear hesitant. (saved)

Sunday 25 October 1998 Hospital plan panned Super-hospital is a waste of needed cash, patients say by UYEN VU (saved)

Friday 23 October 1998 Super-hospital site set Choice is CP Rail's centrally situated but polluted Glen Yards JEFF HEINRICH and ALLISON LAMPERT

Wednesday 14 October 1998 Right choice on health care Liberal leader Jean Charest is being painted by the Parti Quebecois as irresponsible for his promise to restore $198 million in spending cuts to health care this year and next.

Tuesday, October 13, 1998 A daily miscellany of information Worrywarts' corner
"Reach into your pocket or purse," writes Gene Weingarten in The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life and Death (Simon & Schuster). "Feel for a quarter. . . . Can you tell your heads from your tails? Failure to do so can signal a brain tumour or an oncoming stroke." However, he concedes, it's extremely unlikely. Other farfetched things to worry about:

MUHC Board commits to building a new facility
on a single site based on results of sites studies

+ + + +
The MUHC is an initiative of four McGill University teaching hospitals and the Faculty of Medicine.
Saturday 17 October 1998 French superhospital due by 2003 But it needs $307 million from Quebec JEFF HEINRICH A Montreal superhospital - a French one this time - could be born by 2003.
The architects' rough drafts are ready, the financial planning has been sketched out and the doctors and other professionals are on board.
But there's a big "if" that could scuttle the Universite de Montreal project: if the Quebec government doesn't follow through on a 1996 promise to foot two-thirds of the megahospital's $475-million bill, it won't be done.
And Quebec has to come up with the money in less than a month - $307 million by Nov. 12. 98 (saved)

<-- a href=2231223.html -->Sunday 31 January 1999 Spending money to save more Money. It's a question of money. At least that's what you might think from recent polls, articles and letters to the editor in Montreal newspapers concerning the proposal for a new McGill University Health Centre. by NICOLAS STEINMETZ(saved)

Montréal - Westmount Medical

Sunday 29 March 1998
Poverty kills our children
by NICOLAS_STEINMETZ

Last year, the Montreal medical community celebrated two important anniversaries in the treatment of sick children in this city: the 94th birthday of the founding of the Montreal Children's Hospital and the 60th anniversary of McGill University's department of pediatrics. Both these institutions can rightly claim to have contributed to the very real gains made in the treatment of childhood illness and the over-all improvement of children's health here. At a scientific day held to mark both foundings, Dr. Michael Whitehead showed how over time the major causes of admission to hospital and of death among children have changed in Montreal.
Yet children still fall ill and children still die despite nearly a century of progress in the science of pediatrics and the healing arts of medicine. Dr. Whitehead demonstrated that a critical factor in determining which children are likely to be admitted to hospital or to die has remained constant - that factor is poverty.
That a relationship between social inequity and physical health persists to this day was further shown with the recent report of Dr. Richard Lessard, director of public health for Montreal. Of course, the nature of the impact of poverty on health is more complex than simply not having money. Poverty leads to a "series of physical and social privations that have a cumulative effect - poor education, inadequate housing, unfavourable working conditions, economic inactivity, exclusion from the decision-making process - that can, in the extreme, lead to social ostracism."
And the situation is getting worse. Twenty-seven per cent of children live in poor families in Montreal, compared with 20 per cent in 1990. The effects are most serious for infants under one. It is hard to measure the blighting effect of poverty on development, but these children have a 60-per-cent higher mortality and a 64-per-cent higher rate of admission to hospital than infants fortunate enough to be born into families that are better off. They form the majority of patients requiring complex and costly treatment in intensive-care units, and they are the principal clients of youth-protection services.
So what have the advances been? If we return to Dr. Whitehead, we see that obviously enormous strides in mortality and illness rates were achieved in the treatment of infectious diseases. Until 1937, infectious disease was the major cause of death. There was no good treatment. Vaccines came to be available as specific prevention for smallpox and diphtheria.

Nicolas Steinmetz

Admission to hospital? Infectious disease again. Polio and tuberculosis primarily. TB was so common that special wards were set aside for children with this infection. And again the advent of vaccines helped us prevent polio, tetanus, whooping cough, measles and, to a lesser extent, TB. In 1937, sulfonamides appeared on the scene as the first and only antibiotics. Within 30 years we had over a dozen drugs available to treat severe infections such as meningitis or bone and joint infections. Yet the next most common reasons for admission to the hospital were malnutrition and gastroenteritis. And there is no vaccine for malnutrition, and malnourished children rarely come from well-off homes.
So with new medicines, injury became the main cause of death in children and the second most common reason for hospitalization. Respiratory disease was second: pneumonia, croup and bronchiolitis. Injuries remain the most common cause of death in children, and respiratory illness and injury are the most common cause of admission to the hospital for children in 1997.
Thirty years of progress has not changed this. True, more and more children are being treated for very complex problems related to prematurity, congenital malformations or cancer. These treatments are amazing in their complexity, their effectiveness and, of course, their cost. Innovative treatments have always been expensive, yet there seems still to be a consensus that progress in the treatment of a disease is important. Thus, we have devoted lifetimes of work and often enormous resources to the treatment of many lethal conditions. And we have had success upon success on the scientific front. Where is our resolve in addressing the social determinants of ill-health?
Do we really prefer to fix damaged children rather than create the environment for them to thrive and fulfill their God-given potential? Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet and mystic, said, "Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man."
Perhaps it is time that we exhort all those who have a responsibility for the delivery of health care, whether provincial or federal, to heed the call of the National Forum on Health and move to prevent people falling ill. Perhaps it is time to sit up and listen to Tuesday's declaration of the Canadian Human Rights Commission that Canada is too wealthy a nation to allow the poor to be discriminated against - especially when it comes to the well-being of Canada's children.
by NICOLAS_STEINMETZ

files of interest on this site

MUHC
by NICOLAS STEINMETZ
STORIES
Smoke
Alzheimer
The Medical Web
Viagra
Drugs
David Levine case

The Medical Web

by David Zgodzinski,

But as long as people put the information in perspective, the Net is becoming an excellent way to find out about some of those bright-coloured mother's little helpers that we take.

The U.S. government has a lots of well-documented pharmaceutical information.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a Web site (www.fda.gov) filled with authoritative information. The FDA is, after all, the organization that tests and approves any drug going to market in the U.S.

The site has an internal magazine called the "FDA Consumer." The archives (www.fda.gov/fdac/fdacindex.html) go back nine years. There is a summary of the articles in each back issue of this monthly publication. The articles are authoritative but directed at average consumers. If you're interested in pharmaceuticals, you'll love this resource, it's massive.

US Pharmacopeia (www.usp.org) is a voluntary organization that sets standards for pharmaceutical products and publishes information about drugs for professionals and consumers. USP has been doing this good work since 1820, and today has 1,000 volunteers in their "Practitioner's Reporting Network."

The Web site has a number of functions. The USP News items on the home page has bulletins about medicines. The Consumer section has a Just Ask section with basic questions and answers about medicines simple and practical advice about drugs in general. There is also a searchable database on more than 800 commonly used medicines.

Rinfocan (www.islandnet.com/~rinfocan/) is a site that dispenses prescription drug information for Canadians. You can E-mail questions about medicines directly from the site and if your question is chosen, a pharmacist will answer. Some of the questions and answers are printed at the site.

A page on homeopathic medicines describes some of the most popular herbal remedies. There are pages describing major diseases and commonly prescribed medicines. The site also has a good set of links to other pharmaceutical and medical sites. There's even a page with pharmacy humour which goes a long way to explaining why you don't see more pharmacists as standup comedians. And do see our Medical Humour page with quotes were taken from actual medical records. ie. "She has had no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night."

The RxList Internet Drug Index (www.rxlist.com) is a drug reference library put together by Neil Sandow, a hospital pharmacy director in California. The site lets you do a keyword search for a drug name. There's also a list of the 200 most widely prescribed drugs in the U.S.

When you click on the drug of your choice, the page for that drug contains a thorough, somewhat technical, description of the drug and its uses. There is dosage and side-effects information as well.

Another good feature here is the RxList ID, which helps you to identify a drug by searching the database with the ID Imprint code you can find on the tablet or capsule.

If you ever wonder about the drugs that you or a member of your family may be taking, wander through some of these non-toxic drug information sites.

There are also hundreds of newsgroups dedicated to sufferers of individual diseases. One of the most common topics on these groups is medication, and you can learn a lot by reading the experiences of users. But always remember the warning on the label: don't believe everything you read on the Internet.

You can E-mail David Zgodzinski at: davidz@cam.org

Medical clipings A collection of Latest Media stories

Friday 29 January 1999 Health fight is old news by MICHEL DAVID Le Soleil

It was rather amusing to hear Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion say that Ottawa had no intention of invading the jurisdictions of the provinces.

To show his good faith, he said he was willing to write that promise on the health-care funding agreement that Premier Lucien Bouchard had just turned down categorically.

7 January 1999 The new volunteer by PEGGY CURRAN There was a time when hospital volunteers were mostly teenage candy-stripers or cheerful ladies who wheeled a library cart through the wards.

Tuesday 5 January 1999 Unhealthy trend Move to private health care has been growing rapidly - too fast for the comfort of patients in Quebec PHIL NOLIN (saved)

Wednesday 4 November 1998 U-turn on health care The Parti Quebecois government has decided that after four years of ferocious cuts to the province's health-care system, it will reinstate almost all the money it took out. (saved)

Friday 23 October 1998 Assembly drama masked plight of cancer victims JENNIFER ROBINSON Everyone can feel real sympathy for Finance Minister Bernard Landry. His wife has breast cancer, a disease that kills thousands of Canadian women each year. (saved)

Saturday 10 October 1998 I'd cancel health cutbacks: Charest SEAN GORDON (saved)

www.geocities.com/Avenues/Health_and_Fitness/ may be worth a try.. please let us know. via e-mail

Wednesday 14 October 1998 Right choice on health care Liberal leader Jean Charest is being painted by the Parti Quebecois as irresponsible for his promise to restore $198 million in spending cuts to health care this year and next.
Tuesday, October 13, 1998 A daily miscellany of information Worrywarts' corner "Reach into your pocket or purse," writes Gene Weingarten in The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life and Death (Simon & Schuster). "Feel for a quarter. . . . Can you tell your heads from your tails? Failure to do so can signal a brain tumour or an oncoming stroke." However, he concedes, it's extremely unlikely. Other farfetched things to worry about:

Sex and the single rider A widow, I rather enjoy sublimated sex, but the real thing was never this exhausting. Alison Acker Ears back, the big bronze horse glares, then softens, one eye on my outstretched hand and the proffered carrot. There, you see, Dr. Freud was right. Everything about horseback riding relates to sex. (saved)
Saturday 26 September 1998 Superhospital unwanted: poll McGill officials brush off CROP findings, wrap up details on hospital site by JEFF HEINRICH (saved)
Wednesday 23 September 1998 Anglos divided over Alliance's plan to sue by ELIZABETH THOMPSON (saved)
Wednesday 16 September 1998 Health staff is tired: Rochon by JEFF HEINRICH and CAMPBELL CLARK Reforming a health-care system is like renovating a house - there's always more to do than you planned, Health Minister Jean Rochon said yesterday. (saved)
Wednesday 16 September 1998 Access denied This week, Quebec Health Minister Jean Rochon announced a sixth possible date for the adoption of revised access plans for health and social services in English. Mid-October, when the National Assembly resumes sitting, is the date he now holds out.
Has the minister finally run out of people to consult? (saved)
Tuesday 15 September 1998 Health-care job botched: MDs Doctors blame Quebec - and themselves, too - for reforms that don't serve patients by JEFF HEINRICH Blinded by its zero-deficit "obsession," the Quebec government has botched its ambitious reform of the health-care system, a task force of the province's College of Physicians has concluded.
Doctors have failed, too, especially those who run busy walk-in clinics that inflate costs and don't keep track of patients' (saved)

TEDD CHURCH, GAZETTE /Photo Margaret Somerville: "An act constitutes assault unless it is justified."

Saturday 12 September 1998 Circumcision debate cuts deep STELLA TZINTZIS (saved)
<--!href=1986311.html-->Sunday 6 September 1998 Today's medical challenge: the waiting list Over the next three days, the Canadian Medical Association will discuss how the long wait for medical care is affecting people's health. Then it will lobby to fix the problem. by MARK KENNEDY
Are too many Canadians dying while they wait for heart surgery? How many people are waiting weeks or months for radiology tests to confirm if they have cancer, all the while unaware the disease is spreading unchecked throughout their body? (saved)
August 29, 1998 HARD QUESTIONS You bet your life Worried by the risk of longer-living AIDS patients, viatical companies are seeking to diversify to cancer and other terminal diseases. Some are even soliciting business from healthy senior citizens. By Michael Sandel The New Republic
With the Dow Jones industrial average still over 8,000, some investors are putting their money in a ghoulish commodity -- the life-insurance policies of AIDS patients and others diagnosed with terminal illnesses. Call it the death futures market. It works like this: Suppose a dying person holds a life-insurance policy worth $100,000. But he needs money for expensive medical care, or perhaps simply to live well in the short time he has remaining. An investor buys the policy for $50,000 and takes over payment of the premiums. When the original policyholder dies, the investor collects the $100,000 -- at a profit of roughly $50,000.
Saturday 15 August 1998 Emergency-room chaos to abate Renovations to the emergency ward at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital followed the death of a woman who waited four hours to see a doctor. The work will come to an end today. by SUE MONTGOMERY
Families turn to private nurses to fill gaps in hospital care New health-care reality clashing with high expectations, some say By Erin Anderssen Ottawa -- A chunk of tumour has just been sliced out of Waleed Qirbi's head, and he lies limply in bed, his head shaved into a lopsided mohawk, a half-circle of silver stitches capping his naked scalp. "Hello . . . Helloooo . . ." he murmurs weakly, faking a call for help. "That is what the care is like here. No one comes." >
Saturday, July 11, 1998 THE POLITICS OF HOPE: ON THE FRONTIER Canadian doctors take their talents south Top doctors are moving to U.S. hospitals that offer unlimited research money and a chance to practice cutting-edge medicine. A Texas medical centre is a magnet for many. By Carolyn Abraham
Houston -- Louis Pisters' hands are knuckle-deep inside the pelvis of a 78-year-old man. He could not seem more relaxed. Mickey Gilley is singing honky-tonk on the boom box and a skinny male nurse taps the beat on his legs. Doctors from Taiwan and Botswana peer over the patient's freckled head, observing
Sunday 5 July 1998 Scaring teens doesn't work Campaigns that try to frighten people into behaving a certain way rarely work. AIDS awareness campaigns in the 1980s that told young men they would die unless they practiced safe sex were successful for a while, but the young men eventually felt harassed and oppressed and stopped paying attention. It's no different in politics. The 1995 referendum campaign taught the federal government there are limits to what fear can accomplish.
Tuesday 16 June 1998 More medical specialists leaving The worsening exodus means patients are having to wait longer for specialized services, a physicians' federation says. by JEFF HEINRICH
Saturday 13 June 1998 Merged hospitals make offer on land JEFF HEINRICH Goodbye General, goodbye Royal Vic, so long Neuro and Children's. McGill University and its four merged hospitals have made an offer to purchase land for an expensive new, campus-style hospital to be built by 2004. ...What will happen to the four big old hospitals - the Montreal General, Royal Victoria, Montreal Neurological and Montreal Children's, along with the Vic's Montreal Chest Institute - 3 million square feet of real estate?
They will be sold and turned into a variety of housing projects, including fancy condominiums in the Royal Vic's historic buildings on Mount Royal. But where to build? Rumour has included three sites: CP Rail's Glen Yards, near Vendome metro in N.D.G. (slated for a condo project); Meadowbrook golf course, between the Cote St. Luc and Ville St. Pierre borders (abandoned as a housing project); and an entire block of vacant federal land below the Molson Centre, at Peel and Notre Dame Sts. ... coveted by the Expos,
Saturday 13 June 1998 Doctors go back 'Truce' includes money for house calls, office expenses by MONIQUE BEAUDIN ..Salaries won't be discussed until September. The GPs make an average $86,000 before taxes and after their expenses have been paid. Their salaries have been frozen since 1991.
theglobeandmail Monday, June 8, 1998 By Andrew Nikiforuk DNA technique a molecular marvel Alberta scientists' method seen as breakthrough in detecting genetic damage An extraordinarily sensitive tool for detecting damaged DNA, developed by Alberta scientists, is being hailed as a breakthrough in the understanding of how the body responds to genetic injury. Within two weeks of the technology's description appearing in scientific literature, potential applications now being discussed include:
- Saturday 6 June 1998 Hospital's status at risk Montreal General could lose trauma classification - and subsidies by JEFF HEINRICH
- Sunday 7 June 1998 Elite jumping queue for medicare The head of the Canadian Medical Association says it's common for politicians and other influential people to get medical care without enduring life-threatening delays. by MARIA BOHUSLAWSKY Ottawa Citizen ... bypasses or cataract operations from other provinces or the United States.
- Friday 5 June 1998 Secret tax deal is legal - minister Government is covering up mistake in cigarette deal, opposition says by CAMPBELL CLARK... Revenue Minister Rita Dionne-Marsolais refused yesterday to say whether it is legal for her officials to sign agreements that cut a taxpayer's tax rate.
  - Wednesday 3 June 1998 MD shortage hurting Waiting lists for elective surgery get longer as anesthetists go by JEFF HEINRICH
  - Saturday 30 May 1998 We'll work weekdays only: GPs Holding out for a pay increase by BASEM BOSHRA and ANNE SUTHERLAND Most of Quebec's 7,200 general practitioners walked off the job yesterday to turn up the heat in their pay dispute with the provincial government.
  - Thursday 28 May 1998 Health board has big plans Montreal's regional health board has high hopes for a new three-year plan that will include making family doctors available to patients whenever they're needed. JEFF HEINRICH Extra money to shorten waiting lists for surgery. A special project to improve social services for disadvantaged and troubled young people. And a big push to get family physicians for patients, whenever they need them. [n/a]
  - "Prescription for academic health" by Dr. Frederick Lowy
  - Sunday 30 August 1998 Fighting the weed Creative community solutions needed to stop kids from smoking by COLIN KENNY
  - Sunday 9 August 1998 Teen smoking and thinness The bad news is that teenage girls who smoke consider it a relaxing, enjoyable substitute for eating. They smoke not only to be cool but to be thin, according to the results of a study published last week in the PostGraduate Medical Journal. (saved)
  - Thursday 4 June 1998 Ottawa takes tobacco road Imperial Tobacco, Canada's largest cigarette maker, seems to have successfully blown the federal government off course.
  - Saturday 16 May 1998 Fuming over the new rules Quebec's efforts to control smoking in public places don't go far enough for anti-tobacco activists, but restaurant-owners and business leaders object to the new measures. [n/a]
  - Smoke that Kills not good! and Simon V. Potter on The Rule of Law on Tobacco Advertising in Canada
  - Thursday 23 April 1998 Where there's smoke, there's politics In run-up to the election, it's not surprising the government doesn't want to irk the 37 per cent of Quebecers who smoke (saved)
  - Wednesday, October 14, 1998 Lawyers aim for big slice of hepatitis C cash Contingency fees of up to 33% sought in B.C. Dennis Bueckert Ottawa -- Victims of hepatitis C in British Columbia have been asked to sign an agreement that would give their lawyers up to a third of any money they receive from a federal-provincial compensation package. (saved)
  - Tuesday, September 22, 1998 Blood money Knowing when to retreat is an essential tactical skill -- for lobbyists as well as politicians. So is being able to assess priorities, as we have seen time and again in the protracted and bloody controversy about compensation for people testing positive for hepatitis C.
  - Sunday, September 20, 1998 Payments to blood victims ruled out Ottawa's enhanced health-care offer is met with scorn By AndrÉ Picard
    The federal government has offered another $525-million toward health-care for tainted-blood victims, but categorically rejected calls for monetary compensation to those infected with hepatitis C before 1986. "The great tradition of medicare in this country is that when people are sick we provide treatment, not payment. And when people are sick we provide care, not cash," federal Health Minister Allan Rock said yesterday in Regina.
  - unday 23 August 1998 Paying blood donors is a dangerous idea by CATHERINE FORD
  - Thursday 20 August 1998 Giving blood, not selling it The chief of Canada's new blood agency suggests that members of the public be paid for donating blood plasma. At this stage, the idea is wholly premature.
    The chief executive of Canadian Blood Services, Lynda Cranston, says that payment would encourage people to give plasma, thereby helping to overcome a national shortage in the blood product.
    
    Bad Blood
  - Thursday 23 July 1998 Cabinet okays asset shift to blood agency by UYEN VU The Quebec cabinet yesterday approved the transfer of $19.1 million worth of assets from the Red Cross to the province's new blood agency, Hema-Quebec.
  - Saturday 2 May 1998 Do the right thing It was, to a very large degree, just a matter of bad luck and bad timing whether you were among the 60,000 or more Canadians stricken with hepatitis C or, in the case of nearly 2,000 other people, infected with HIV, the virus associated with AIDS.
    Ordinary Canadians feel sorry, but compassion seems to have no place in the federal and provincial governments' calculations. (The notable exception is Quebec, which has always insisted that all victims be treated equally.) Called upon this week once again to compensate all hepatitis-C victims, Ottawa and the other provincial governments refused. [a mistake was made .. now we must pay up and elect others DTN]
  - Pfizer - Kent Blair
    PFE $95.75 UNDERPERFORM Target: $80.00 PFE chart
    - 3Q98 earnings came in below expectations. PFE reported $0.51 vs $0.45 while expectations had been around $0.56
    - the cause of the shortfall was due to a higher than expected tax rate and lower than expected VIAGRA sales. The tax rate on the quarter increased from 25% to 29%. VIAGRA sales totaled $115 million down from the $409 million recorded in the 2Q
    - on a more positive note sales of PFE's other drugs continue to do well
    - management expects that 1998 results will come in at $2.05-$2.10. However Kent feels that this guidance is too high given the likely success of PFE's direct to consumer advertising campaign which is due to commence shortly
    - Kent continues recommend that investors avoid PFE as he feels that the valuation is very rich especially given what appears to be slowing VIAGRA sales
    - EPS EST: 1998E $1.95 was $2.10; 1999E $2.33 was $2.50
  - Tuesday, October 13, 1998 Discovery used in Viagra scores Nobel Prize Work could also help heart and cancer patients Malcolm Ritter Three Americans won the Nobel Prize for medicine yesterday for discovering that the body uses nitric-oxide gas to make blood vessels relax and widen -- a finding that helped lead to Viagra and could pay off in treating heart disease.
  - Friday, September 04, 1998 HIV carriers must tell partners, court rules Supreme Court judges unite in controversial decision on sexually transmitted diseases By Sean Fine People who endanger their sex partners by failing to tell them they have AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases will now face a risk of their own -- jail. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled yesterday that those who have a dangerous sexually transmitted disease must not have unprotected sex without telling their partner of their condition or face criminal sanctions.
  - Viagra Rival Stock Jumps
    SEATTLE (Reuters) 30 May 98 - Stock in ICOS, a small Seattle-area biotech company, surged nearly 30 percent Friday after a report that its experimental impotence drug could be as effective as the blockbuster Viagra -- but with fewer side effects. ICOS rose $4.81 to $21.06 on the Nasdaq market, where it was the most active issue with almost 23 million shares changing hands. The 8-year-old company has lost $64 million in the past three years and has never brought a product to market. But investors snapped up shares, hoping ICOS can duplicate the runaway success of Pfizer's little blue pills, which have smashed all sales records in the two months since the drug won U.S. regulatory approval.
  - Monday 27 April 1998 A rising trend ... Viagra. the "sexual steroid."
  - Wednesday 29 April 1998 Ready for a nine-month download? (saved)
  - Thursday 18 February 1999 Gene might fight problem cells McGill researchers make breakthrough Scientists at McGill University have discovered a new human gene that might one day help "deprogram" cells in the body and reverse diseases like cancer, as well as help in organ transplantation and cloning. JEFF HEINRICH
  - Friday 29 January 1999 No way to fight drugs
  - Friday 29 January 1999 No way to fight drugs
  - Saturday 25 July 1998 TD Bank's drug tests illegal Appeals court rules practice contravenes Human Rights Act by STEPHEN BINDMAN (saved)
  - What are G8 leaders smoking? Monday, May 18, 1998 There is something very special about illicit drugs. If they don't always make the drug user behave irrationally, they certainly cause many non-users to behave that way
    Prohibition does not work and cannot work, and its costs are higher than those of a policy of properly supervised and regulated access to drugs. Given that the elimination of drugs from our society is not an option, the G8 leaders should have been asking themselves how they can minimize the harm that drugs represent. As it is, their policies maximize the damage. [n/a]
  - Thursday 30 April 1998 - Jay Bryan - Illegal-drug fight is costly and ineffective (saved)
  - Wednesday 29 April 1998 Charest's instincts right on health DON MACPHERSON (saved)
  - Wednesday 29 April 1998 Health care in bad shape - new report A study prepared by a coalition of community groups paints a bleak portrait of the results of social-service and medical-aid cuts in Montreal.
  - Monday 20 April 1998 Insurance won't pay hospital bill BERNARD PERUSSE
  - Friday 17 April 1998 Patients need an advocate ... One, the animosity between the province's 15,000 doctors and Quebec's health minister has gone from bad to worse. ... died waiting to see a doctor in the emergency ward
  Beaudoin reviewed case.
  - Saturday 11 April 1998 MD's exit not law's fault: minister Culture Minister Louise Beaudoin says anesthetist Terry Yemen has until July 2000 to pass a French test, and is acting hastily by announcing that he'll return to the U.S.
  - Wednesday 11 March 1998 Montreal in crisis: Bourque ...Quebec City must not translate into a load-shedding from the Montreal region of public health," (saved)
  - Polio Quebec thanks to Sally Aitken and Servas is an international network of hosts and travelers. See our Seniors page
  - www.psychtests.com/ no frames
  - Wednesday 28 January 1998 Keep fit on the Web (saved)
  - Saturday 11 April 1998 MD's exit not law's fault: minister Culture Minister Louise Beaudoin says anesthetist Terry Yemen has until July 2000 to pass a French test, and is acting hastily by announcing that he'll return to the U.S.
  - Monday 6 April 1998 Don't buy sperm on Net, officials warn But beyond the health risks, there are also symbolic implications for society as a whole if the stuff of life is reduced to the status of commodity to be bought and sold on the Internet or at the sperm bank, said Dr. Margaret Somerville of the McGill Centre for Ethics, Medicine and Law in Montreal.
  - Thursday 5 March 1998 Watch out, Martin set to overhaul seniors' benefit for more see our Budget Night
  - Thursday 26 February 1998 - Jennifer Robinson - Anesthetist shortage a real eye-opener
  - Abortion debate still rages after 25 years Roe v. Wade was to be milestone for U.S. women; in fact, it settled nothing Tuesday, January 20, 1998 By Andrew Cohen (saved)
  - Older files my be sill here

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