Charlottetown, PE – Yesterday’s news from Health PEI on the overcapacity of our healthcare system, as well as the release of the long overdue 2023-2024 Health PEI Annual Report, paints a grim picture of our healthcare system under the current government.
The facts speak for themselves:
- Over the past two years, we’ve only seen an increase of five full-time equivalent (FTE) family physicians – while the Minister of Health boasts about hiring physicians, many are replacing those who have retired or left.
- Islanders are waiting an average of 96 hours — four days — in our ERs should they require admission to an inpatient bed or operating room.
- Surgical and MRI wait times are among the worst in the country, forcing Islanders to live with pain and uncertainty.
- The patient registry grew by another 1,000 people between July and October last year, despite government’s repeated claims that they are making progress on primary care access.
- Vacancy rates for healthcare professionals within Health PEI are at 18%, meaning almost one in five positions is unfilled, putting further strain on an already overburdened system.
- The PCH ICU has been closed for almost two years, with no reopening date in sight.
Since being elected, the King government has failed to add significant new primary care access for Islanders. While it’s positive that government opened 17 patient medical homes, nearly all are staffed by providers who already had existing patients. Meanwhile, Islanders on the registry — now nearing 36,000 — without a family doctor or nurse practitioner are being told by Health PEI that if they are sick or hurt they should visit pharmacies or go to Maple on their tablet.
Despite these alarming figures, the Minister of Health continues to tell Islanders that he and his government are making progress and putting Islanders first. This is the same Minister who, when offered solutions that would directly impact Islanders, like covering bridge and ferry tolls for those needing to travel to out-of-province medical appointments, claims he must be a ‘steward of the public purse.’ At the same time, this Minister is spending millions on Ontario consultants at KPMG who aren’t delivering the results Islanders were promised.
The King government needs to stop this wasteful spending of taxpayer money on initiatives that deliver no tangible results. Many Islanders are worried things will only continue to get worse in our healthcare system. We need a government that is accountable, that listens to the needs of Islanders and frontline healthcare workers, and that focuses on real solutions to fix our healthcare crisis.
Matt MacFarlane
MLA Borden-Kinkora
Third Party Critic for Health
