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Petition
Presented June 2, 2008
To improve efforts to recruit and retain general
practitioners.
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| In the House | Petitions
MR. BUTLER: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I have a petition to
present on behalf of the residents, not only in my area
but throughout the Province, with regard to a petition
on doctor shortages.
We know, over the past
several weeks, I have been presenting those petitions
because it is a major issue, Mr. Speaker. It is a major
issue. A lot of people in my area and other areas do not
have a general practitioner, and I guess the workload is
falling down on the emergency units in our regional
hospitals.
Mr. Speaker, we have
support from the joint councils, all of the mayors and
municipalities. We hear residents; we read their letters
in the papers from time to time. Mr. Speaker, it is a
major issue, and hopefully the day will come when we
will see general practitioners in our area.
I cannot help but note
the letter that was in the paper this week - I think it
was on the thirty-first – by one of our general
practitioners in the Placentia area. It just goes to
show how serious this particular issue is. He was
referring to how – I guess the minister looked at it
when someone said that our health care was in a crisis.
This is what he referred it to, Mr. Speaker. He said: It
reminds me of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar,
holding his telescope to his sightless eye and saying: I
see no ships. I am not saying the minister has a
sightless eye, but I just want him to keep his ears and
eyes open to the concerns of the people, more so now
that we hear it from our general practitioners
themselves. They are crying out for help too, Mr.
Speaker.
On behalf of all of those
people, I want to present this petition, and hopefully
the government will continue on with their recruitment
and retention program for all our residents when it
comes to our general practitioners.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. |
