The province of B.C. recognized and thanked Dr. Julio Montaner this week for his decades-long work and research in HIV/AIDS care, treatment and prevention, which has led to B.C. becoming a world leader in pioneering treatment for HIV patients. Montaner is currently the director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

A tight-knit clinic at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital plans to renovate its small space to better serve women with breast cancer diagnoses. With quotes from Imelda Villeneuve, the nurse navigator at Providence Health Care Breast Centre.

“It was August 2013 when I sat waiting for what seemed like an eternity in the office of an orthopedic surgeon at the Complex Joint Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital.”

For the past three years, a program called Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) has emerged as a preferred support service for an especially marginalized group of people who struggle with severe addiction and/or mental illness. With mention of the province working with VCH to expand the ACT program.

Vancouver has become the first city in North America to offer prescription heroin to drug users outside of a clinical trial. With quotes from Dr. Scott MacDonald, who runs the Providence Crosstown Clinic.

Doctors at the Providence Crosstown Clinic are set to administer prescription heroin to about two dozen drug users this week, marking the first time in North America that people have been treated with the narcotic outside a clinical study.

The B.C. Cancer Foundation agreed to pledge $375,000 in charitable donation funds over five years to help defray the salary costs of the now-resigned leader of the BC Cancer Agency, Dr. Max Coppes. With quotes from John Jennings, former chair of the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation.

Hospital visits attributed to alcohol and drug abuse increased by 63 per cent in the Greater Vancouver area over just four years ending in 2013, and visits to St. Paul’s Hospital for substance abuse increased by a whopping 89 per cent over the same period. With quotes from Dr. Evan Wood, medical director for Addiction Services at VCH.

Just more than half of acute care workers with Vancouver Coastal Health have reported getting a flu shot this fall. With quotes from Dr. Meena Dawar, medical health officer at VCH.

Starting the week of Nov. 23, doctors will administer prescription heroin to a select group of patients in Vancouver. With quotes from David Byres, vice-president of acute clinical programs at Providence Health Care.