 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Shortage of family doctors pushing more patients to overburdened ERs, physicians say | | |  | Michael Tryon and his son, Nick, are searching for a new family doctor in Edmonton. They are among nearly five million Canadians who don't have a family physician, according to the College of Family Physicians of Canada. (Julia Wong/CBC) | | | Michael Tryon is on the hunt for a family doctor.
The Edmonton man learned in June that his family doctor is retiring at the end of November, and Tryon has been searching for a new one for himself, his wife and his son ever since.
"We need to find somebody. We need to keep looking," he said. "[You] don't want to turn up in an ER unless you're dying or you've got a broken bone or you've got something serious."
Tryon is one of the nearly five million Canadians without a family physician, according to the College of Family Physicians of Canada. And those doctorless patients are turning up in already-stressed emergency rooms across the country with routine concerns and problems.
Dr. Sean Wilde, an emergency physician in Lethbridge, Alta., estimates that up to one-third of patients in his ER are without a family physician.
He said some are coming in with routine requests, such as refilling prescriptions, filling out forms for work or insurance purposes, or checking a concerning mole.
"It's not uncommon to have people come in and say, 'I know I don't really need to be in the ER but I need this done. I need to see a physician and I don't have any other options,'" Wilde said.
"It obviously increases our volume. It increases the wait time. It's more challenging to find space to treat people and everyone has to wait a little bit longer."
The scope of the problem is also swamping walk-in clinics.
Joanna Kiraly, director of operations for Medicentres Family Care Clinic, said its clinics in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario are seeing an increase of doctorless patients.
To deal with demand, Kiraly says the clinics started a program where nurses, overseen by physicians, see patients with minor issues.
"We believe that will help support and perhaps relieve some of that pressure on the ERs," she said. | | | | | Fiery tribute | | |  | (Mark Humphrey/The Associated Press) | | | | Elle King performs Great Balls of Fire during a tribute to the late Jerry Lee Lewis at the 56th Annual CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | In the early morning hours of Jan. 27, 2021, two police forces descended on a snowy cul-de-sac in Gatineau, Que., each tasked with an important role in one of the largest-ever ransomware takedowns in Canada. Members of the RCMP, led by the cybercrime unit, were executing a search warrant at a white brick house on the street, while the Gatineau police service was on hand to make an arrest on behalf of the FBI. The codename for the operation was Project Olunar. They had reason to believe the man inside was User ID 128 — one of the most successful hackers in NetWalker, a criminal ransomware group thought to be tied to Russia. “There was a huge urgency to proceed to apprehend him and stop him because the time was ticking and every day was a new victim,” said Const. Francois Picard-Blais, a cybercrime investigator for the RCMP. Read more here as The Fifth Estate goes inside the police takedown of a former federal government IT specialist turned ransomware hacker.
Red poppies from the Royal Canadian Legion are a common sight at stores and on lapels across Canada leading up to Remembrance Day. Also common this time of year? Poppy products sold online that are not authorized by the legion. It is a growing problem for the organization, which has registered the trademark of the poppy image. "It is extremely frustrating," said Nujma Bond, a national spokesperson for the legion. "It happens every year at about this time where we get a lot of fraudulent websites and people coming up with various poppy-related products." This year, she says the legion has seen close to 1,600 violations — almost triple the number of unauthorized products compared to 2021. The legion's website notes that the organization has trademarked the image of the poppy to "safeguard" it as a symbol of remembrance. According to the site, the remembrance poppy cannot be used "on consumer items such as products, apparel, art, or commemorative items or their packaging," without authorization. Read more on this story here.
As a virus leaves some babies under the age of two wheezing — adding to the pressure on Canada's hospitals — drug makers are working on new treatment and vaccine options for the illness. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) gets the "S" in its name for large cells known as syncytia that form when infected cells fuse. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, children were commonly exposed to RSV between November and March. By two years of age, it's estimated 90 per cent of us have been infected. This year, RSV arrived early in parts of Canada and the U.S., based on swabs of those in the hospital, and it even circulated in the summer. Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre, said infants are born susceptible to RSV because they don't have antibodies to fight off the infection. Drug maker GSK is developing a vaccine program for pregnant individuals as well as older adults, an age group Papenburg said is also now considered at risk for complications from RSV. Moderna said it plans a Phase 3 clinical trial of an mRNA vaccine for adults aged 60 and older. Potential RSV vaccines from other companies are also in the works. Read the full story here.
In 2021, a brutal flood brought on by extreme heat destroyed much of the world-renowned Berg Lake Trail at Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia. B.C. Parks will restore the area, which will keep the Berg Lake Trail partially closed for two more years, while trying to answer a critical question: How exactly to rebuild against inevitable, unpredictable crises, while balancing the need for tourism and conservation? Other parks in Canada are facing similar challenges, from eroding cliffs in Prince Edward Island National Park to wildfire-stricken forests in Alberta’s Jasper National Park. The answers found at Mount Robson could become a model that eventually helps preserve Canada’s parks for future generations. Read more on this story here.
After the success of 2018's Black Panther, director Ryan Coogler wrote a 300-page script for a sequel and sent it to Chadwick Boseman, who played the title character. Little did Coogler know the actor was too weak to read it. As reported in Variety, when the news of Boseman's death from cancer broke in August 2020, castmate Letitia Wright was so shocked she texted the actor she saw as her surrogate brother in disbelief. Flash forward two years and Coogler has delivered a sequel missing the very star whose shoulders carried the franchise. Boseman is gone, but his presence, especially in the opening moments of the film, is palpable. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a return to the old Marvel magic filled with spectacle and superheroes, but more than that, what Coogler and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole have created is a gift: a chance for Boseman's castmates and the characters they played to say goodbye — and move the story forward. Read more here from CBC’s Eli Glasner.
Now here's some good news to start your Thursday: A Winnipegger living with a neurological condition that can make long runs risky says her first New York City Marathon was amazing, painful, overwhelming — and thankfully, fall-free. "I'm just still feeling all the emotions," Carla Loeppky said. "It was incredible…. It was intense." Loeppky crossed the finish line Sunday holding hands with her 21-year-old son, Henry, who did the race with her as a guide — someone who runs along with a registered runner. She raised money for Candace House, which supports and advocates for families who have lost someone to a homicide. Read more on this story here. | | | OPINION | Our health system is struggling: what I see as a doctor at the front lines of a health traffic jam | | | Our health-care system has been strained for some time now by the ongoing pandemic. This is neither news nor surprising, writes Dr. Chris Christensen. The fix is more complicated than hiring lost health-care workers or adding more beds. Read the column here. | | | | |  | Qatar and a World Cup controversy | This month's FIFA World Cup is a big one for Canada. It's the first time in 36 years that our men's team has qualified to compete, and the last World Cup before Canada shares hosting duties in 2026.
But in the decade since Qatar won its bid to host this year's tournament, allegations of bribery, discrimination and human rights abuses have threatened to overshadow the game. Qatar criminalizes same-sex relationships, and a report from the Guardian says at least 6,500 migrant workers have died since its successful bid.
As players and fans grapple with how to protest, we're joined by Roger Bennett of the Men in Blazers podcast. He's just co-authored a new book called Gods of Soccer and is co-hosting World Corrupt, a podcast that dives deep into FIFA corruption and the World Cup in Qatar.
Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: November 10 | | | 1969: The children's educational program Sesame Street makes its debut.
1975: The iron-ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in a storm on Lake Superior with the loss of 29 crewmen. The tragedy was commemorated in a song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot.
1979: A Canadian Pacific freight train carrying deadly combustible chemicals derails in the heart of Mississauga, Ont. Deadly chlorine gas leaked from a punctured tanker and within 24 hours, 220,000 people, most of the city's population, had been evacuated from the area.
1989: Workers begin punching a hole in the Berlin Wall, one day after East Germany abolished its border restrictions. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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