Media stories for September 6, 2012

Four fire, three suspended over privacy breaches
Vancouver Sun
Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said today the government acted quickly as soon as it received allegations of alleged privacy breaches.

BC health officials fired over access to medical records
CBC.ca
Four B.C. Ministry of Health employees have been fired and two have been suspended without pay while the RCMP investigate allegations the employees inappropriately accessed sensitive medical records, the ministry says.

BC health ministry suspends workers over privacy breach
Vancouver Sun
Seven employees have been suspended without pay from the B.C. Ministry of Health over allegations of inappropriate access to medical information. Specifically, the investigation is looking into allegations of conflict of interest as well as inappropriate conduct by ministry employees and drug researchers involving contracting and data management practices.

Poor communication between hospitals, police, justice system linked to stabbing: report
The Province
Mohamed Amer is facing attempted murder charges after allegedly stabbing a 71-year-old man at Waves Coffee on Feb. 21. Some police officers and court and correctional workers told reviewers they were perplexed why individuals they deemed high-risk with mental illness were only “assessed briefly” in hospital and discharged without communication back to them.

‘Drug holiday’ an option for some prostate cancers
CBC News
Canadian-led research, co-authored by VGH’s Dr. Larry Goldenberg, shows that men who were given intermittent courses of drugs, which suppress the production of male hormones, lived as long as men who received continuous therapy.