Short briefs on what is changing in healthcare in Manitoba and across Canada, collected from official bodies and news outlets, each linked to its original source.
Summaries are written automatically by AI from each source’s published text. They can contain mistakes. Always check the original before acting. How this works
P.E.I. released a 16-recommendation alcohol strategy after five years of planning, aiming to reduce drinking rather than ban it. Measures include screening for high-risk drinking at medical appointments, youth programs, pricing by alcohol content, and putting 3 per cent of net alcohol profits into community and harm-reduction work. Alcohol causes about 7,000 ER visits and hospitalizations a year on the Island, and impaired driving rates are nearly three times the national average.
The strategy links alcohol policy directly to health care: screening in clinics, and a share of liquor profits funding harm reduction.
Only about 34 per cent of Canadians eligible for the Registered Disability Savings Plan have opened one, a 2024 Statistics Canada investigation found, versus roughly 68 per cent uptake for TFSAs and RRSPs. The plan offers up to $70,000 in federal grants and $20,000 in bonds, but take-up is held back by low awareness, few providers, and a 16-page clinician questionnaire needed to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit.
Frontline workers may be the first to tell eligible clients about a plan worth up to $90,000 in federal help that most never hear about.
A fatality inquiry heard that Prashant Sreekumar, 44, died on Dec. 22, 2025 after waiting about eight hours in the Grey Nuns emergency department in Edmonton for chest pain. A doctor testified the hospital's five general medicine units have run above capacity since at least 2024, with occupancy around 101 per cent in 2025, and that 20 to 30 per cent of beds hold patients who no longer need hospital care. The inquiry resumes in December.
The testimony puts numbers to ER overcrowding: more patients than beds, and a fifth to a third of beds taken by patients awaiting placement elsewhere.
Canada’s flu season began seven weeks earlier than usual, with national positivity rates exceeding the five per cent epidemic threshold by mid-October. While H1N1 is the dominant strain, experts note that current vaccines remain effective at reducing the severity of illness and the risk of hospitalization.
You can now offer patients the current flu vaccine, which remains effective against the dominant H1N1 strain.
Moderna and Merck's personalized mRNA vaccine intismeran cut the risk of melanoma returning by 42 per cent two years after surgery, in a study of more than 1,100 people with high-risk melanoma. Two years on, 82 per cent of vaccinated patients were recurrence-free, versus 70 per cent on Keytruda alone. The companies are discussing approval with regulators; full results were due at a European oncology meeting in Madrid.
A personalized mRNA vaccine, matched to each patient's tumour, is moving toward approval after a large trial showed a clear gain in living without recurrence.
More than 300,000 British Columbians live with long COVID, and the province's virtual-care clinic serves over 8,500 patients. From Nov. 1, virtual group appointments will be capped at 30 patients, down from groups of up to 50, and the per-patient fee falls from $14.71 to $11.42. The clinic says allied health will no longer be available in virtual group settings and patients should expect longer waits; the changes were signed off by the Medical Services Commission on Sept. 24.
The changes land Nov. 1 on a clinic that is the main virtual-care route for thousands of long COVID patients across B.C.
Saskatchewan hospitals are now using a rapid test that gives a mother with HIV her viral load on site within about two hours, instead of waiting days for a central lab, so treatment decisions for mother and newborn can be made at once. The practice is in use in Regina and Saskatoon and is rolling out to Melfort and more remote communities. Saskatchewan is the first province to use the test this widely; in 2024 its first-time HIV diagnosis rate was three times the national average, second only to Manitoba.
A two-hour result instead of days means treatment for mother and baby can start before they leave the hospital.
The federal heritage committee meets next week to vote on Bill S-211, which would rein in sports betting ads across Canada; the bill has already passed the Senate. A CBC analysis of seven televised 2026 NHL playoff games found viewers faced 3,000 gambling messages, with ads or logos appearing two to three times a minute, and 95 per cent carried no harm-reduction or age-restriction information. Ontario and Alberta oppose the bill.
If the committee approves it, the bill goes to a final House vote, the first federal move to limit sports betting ads.
A Statistics Canada report shows registered nursing employment grew by over 100,000 positions since 2019. Despite this growth, vacancy rates remain high, particularly for licensed practical nurses, and inflation-adjusted wages for many nursing roles have declined since 2019.
Philips has issued a notice regarding Azurion 7 systems that may contain unauthorized solid-state drives. These incorrect components could lead to system failures, including the loss of imaging capabilities, motorized movement issues, or the inability to access and store patient data.
If you use an Azurion 7 system, be aware that unauthorized drives may cause sudden equipment failure or loss of patient data.
Abbott has issued a recall for specific lots of i-STAT hs-TnI cartridges due to manufacturing variability. These cartridges may produce falsely elevated cardiac troponin I results because of reduced interference mitigation. There is no evidence of falsely low test results.
Check your i-STAT hs-TnI cartridge lots against the recall list and stop using any affected units immediately.
Sabrina Apitz-Grossman, 31, was told she has 12 to 18 months to live with synovial sarcoma that spread to her lungs; her doctors recommend Tecelra, a US-approved treatment costing $727,000 US, but OHIP denied out-of-country coverage and her appeal and case-by-case application both failed. After a court ordered coverage for another patient in July, Ontario changed the rules so out-of-country drug treatments are funded only if already funded in the province and temporarily unavailable.
The rule change closes the route other patients used to get life-extending treatment abroad when Ontario does not fund it.
Nearly 130,000 Ontarians now show signs of gambling problems, about triple the roughly 43,000 in 2018, according to new Alberta Gambling Research Institute research, after private online casino games and sports betting expanded in 2022. Gambling-related suicides also tripled after 2022, from an average of five a year in 2016-2021, the Chief Coroner's office says. Ontario says it has spent $421 million on responsible gambling and addiction treatment since 2018.
The numbers tie the 2022 online-casino expansion to a tripling of both problem gambling and gambling-related suicides in Ontario.
Federal, provincial, and territorial health ministers met in Winnipeg on October 16, 2026, to discuss healthcare system reforms. Key priorities included improving workforce mobility for internationally educated professionals, advancing national public health data sharing, and ensuring the sustainability of long-term funding for rare disease treatments and community care services.
Health Canada announced more than $6 million for initiatives to improve culturally responsive mental health and substance use services for Black Canadians, announced by federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel in Toronto. The funding runs through the Substance Use and Addictions Program and the Supporting Community Mental Health Crisis Response Initiative as part of Canada's Black Justice Strategy, covering culturally safe prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery services, expanded supports for Black youth and families, peer mentorship, provider training and community-based crisis res
Winnipeg's HSDE is among the funded organizations, so frontline workers there can point clients to school-based workshops, peer support and drop-in help.
Guelph psychotherapist Marinela Trickett has launched a petition asking Ontario to cover long-term supportive psychotherapy under OHIP, saying her clinic gets daily calls from people who cannot access long-term support and many wait until crisis, then go to hospitals where their needs are not met. With Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner she will bring the petition, aiming for 5,000 signatures, to Queen's Park in November. OHIP now covers psychotherapy only from a doctor or psychiatrist; private sessions average $150 to $180 each.
It asks Ontario to treat psychotherapy as medically necessary care, not a private expense, a question frontline workers hear from patients every day.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has declared the two-year national measles outbreak over, following two months without new linked cases. The outbreak resulted in 6,417 total cases across 10 provinces and territories, including 1,033 in Manitoba. Officials continue to emphasize the importance of routine vaccinations to prevent future transmission.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions met with federal and provincial health ministers to advocate for a national seniors' care strategy. The union is calling for mandatory staffing standards, increased funding, and improved support for long-term care workers to address chronic overcapacity and workplace violence.
The author argues that expanding emergency departments to address overcrowding often fails if inpatient bottlenecks remain. Citing studies and national data, the piece suggests that increasing ED capacity without improving patient flow can worsen boarding times and strain nursing resources. Governments are urged to prioritize flow management and bed availability over physical facility expansion.
The federal government has extended health funding for mental health, addictions, home care, and community services by one year. This extension aligns with existing long-term care agreements and provides a new timeline for governments to discuss long-term funding formulas.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is meeting with health ministers on October 16 to advocate for a national seniors’ care strategy. The union is calling for the renewal of expiring federal funding agreements for long-term, home, and community care to support staffing standards and improved care delivery for older Canadians.