Treyfish
Moderator
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=27 width="100%" heigth="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="100%" height=500 text-align="top">N.S. rolls out contingency plan for possible flu pandemic
HALIFAX (CP) - Nova Scotia insisted Tuesday it's well prepared for an influenza pandemic despite sharp criticism from the province's nurses that it has done little to get ready for an outbreak that could threaten their lives.
Dr. Jim Millar, chief of program delivery with the Health Department, said officials have spent the last two years working on a plan for a health crisis he estimates could leave up to 35 per cent of the population ill and 1,000 people dead.
"I think we're quite well prepared," he told reporters upon the plan's release in Halifax. "If there was a pandemic declared tomorrow, we could take this plan and we could certainly start to work with it."
But Janet Hazelton of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union said she and the 6,000 frontline health-care workers she represents have not been consulted on the process and fear they will not be protected in the event of a widespread flu outbreak.
Hazelton said the 210-page document provides few details on what the province will actually do to deal with a pandemic, particularly how it will staff hospitals with critical personnel.
She said politicians and health-care administrators have had four years since the SARS epidemic to learn how to address health-care workers' concerns, such as whether their families will be vaccinated, will they be relocated to other health districts, or whether or not they can refuse work.
None of those questions was answered in the plan, she said.
"It's a nice plan for a plan. Now I want to see the plan," she told reporters. "There are no details and that's what my nurses want to see."
Nurses in Nova Scotia are particularly eager to find out if officials are considering using an antiviral as a prophylaxis to protect them in the lead up to a pandemic. That would involve taking a protective drug or vaccine.
Some of Canada's largest and most influential teaching hospitals decided last year to buy enough of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to protect their employees from becoming ill during a pandemic - a move that could put pressure on other jurisdictions to follow their lead.
The issue is being discussed at the federal level and Nova Scotia representatives have said they will wait to see what comes out of those meetings before deciding what to do.
Millar said the plan, which comes almost three years after the federal framework was rolled out, will evolve as more information becomes available internationally and from district health authorities.
The team of health officials will revise some aspects of the plan in light of the recent mumps outbreak, which has afflicted at least 400 people in the province before spreading across the country.
Dr. Rob Strang, deputy chief medical officer of health, said they will evaluate their response next week and will look specifically at ways to isolate and quarantine individuals, how well people responded to that, communications with physicians and the means of gathering names of people affected by the highly contagious illness.
Hazelton said the province handled the mumps outbreak so poorly that at one point nurses had to be quarantined in an emergency department leaving no one to work in a certain section of a hospital.
"We cut our teeth on the mumps and I don't think we did it well," she said.
Health Minister Chris D'Entremont said the aim of the pandemic plan is to reduce the amount of sickness and death during an outbreak, and focuses on communications, surveillance, vaccines, antivirals and health services.
Like other jurisdictions, the province followed the federal plan in determining who get would the limited supplies of Tamiflu. Health-care workers, emergency responders and people at higher risk of contracting the virus will be at the top of the list.
The province has only enough antiviral for five per cent of its population, but plans to have enough to provide to 17 per cent of its residents. All provinces expect to be able to provide enough antivirals and vaccines for the same percentage of their populations, but it's not known when they will get the full quota.:tiphat:
</TD></TR><TR><TD text-align="bottom">http://www.cp.org/english/online/On...me=T062604AU&newsitemid=26702021&languageid=1
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
HALIFAX (CP) - Nova Scotia insisted Tuesday it's well prepared for an influenza pandemic despite sharp criticism from the province's nurses that it has done little to get ready for an outbreak that could threaten their lives.
Dr. Jim Millar, chief of program delivery with the Health Department, said officials have spent the last two years working on a plan for a health crisis he estimates could leave up to 35 per cent of the population ill and 1,000 people dead.
"I think we're quite well prepared," he told reporters upon the plan's release in Halifax. "If there was a pandemic declared tomorrow, we could take this plan and we could certainly start to work with it."
But Janet Hazelton of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union said she and the 6,000 frontline health-care workers she represents have not been consulted on the process and fear they will not be protected in the event of a widespread flu outbreak.
Hazelton said the 210-page document provides few details on what the province will actually do to deal with a pandemic, particularly how it will staff hospitals with critical personnel.
She said politicians and health-care administrators have had four years since the SARS epidemic to learn how to address health-care workers' concerns, such as whether their families will be vaccinated, will they be relocated to other health districts, or whether or not they can refuse work.
None of those questions was answered in the plan, she said.
"It's a nice plan for a plan. Now I want to see the plan," she told reporters. "There are no details and that's what my nurses want to see."
Nurses in Nova Scotia are particularly eager to find out if officials are considering using an antiviral as a prophylaxis to protect them in the lead up to a pandemic. That would involve taking a protective drug or vaccine.
Some of Canada's largest and most influential teaching hospitals decided last year to buy enough of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to protect their employees from becoming ill during a pandemic - a move that could put pressure on other jurisdictions to follow their lead.
The issue is being discussed at the federal level and Nova Scotia representatives have said they will wait to see what comes out of those meetings before deciding what to do.
Millar said the plan, which comes almost three years after the federal framework was rolled out, will evolve as more information becomes available internationally and from district health authorities.
The team of health officials will revise some aspects of the plan in light of the recent mumps outbreak, which has afflicted at least 400 people in the province before spreading across the country.
Dr. Rob Strang, deputy chief medical officer of health, said they will evaluate their response next week and will look specifically at ways to isolate and quarantine individuals, how well people responded to that, communications with physicians and the means of gathering names of people affected by the highly contagious illness.
Hazelton said the province handled the mumps outbreak so poorly that at one point nurses had to be quarantined in an emergency department leaving no one to work in a certain section of a hospital.
"We cut our teeth on the mumps and I don't think we did it well," she said.
Health Minister Chris D'Entremont said the aim of the pandemic plan is to reduce the amount of sickness and death during an outbreak, and focuses on communications, surveillance, vaccines, antivirals and health services.
Like other jurisdictions, the province followed the federal plan in determining who get would the limited supplies of Tamiflu. Health-care workers, emergency responders and people at higher risk of contracting the virus will be at the top of the list.
The province has only enough antiviral for five per cent of its population, but plans to have enough to provide to 17 per cent of its residents. All provinces expect to be able to provide enough antivirals and vaccines for the same percentage of their populations, but it's not known when they will get the full quota.:tiphat:
</TD></TR><TR><TD text-align="bottom">http://www.cp.org/english/online/On...me=T062604AU&newsitemid=26702021&languageid=1
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>