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Petition
Presented April 30, 2009
Lack of medical services at the Ramea Clinic
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MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I take this opportunity
to present a petition on behalf of the residents of
Ramea, Grey River and Francois with respect to the lack
of medical facilities, services, being offered at the
Ramea clinic.
The Ramea clinic, of
course, services not only the community of Ramea but
they also are responsible for doing clinics down the
coast to Grey River and Francois. The site in Ramea
calls for two nurse practitioners, but for some months -
I believe in excess of a year or more now - we have a
situation where there has only been one nurse
practitioner and she had, for most of that time,
absolutely no other support staff. Of course, it makes
it really cumbersome because when you are down to one -
that is 50 per cent of your capacity shot - it puts
coastal clinics off by as much as seven or eight weeks
sometimes that people cannot get to see the nurse
practitioner, simply because of the lack of manpower or
womanpower in having the services provided.
The health committee in
Ramea have constantly been in contact in trying to deal
with the officials at the Calder Health Centre in Burgeo
as well as in Western, of course, because it all comes
under the Western Region, to deal with this issue and
the situation has not been resolved.
Now, in fairness to the
people in Western, and particularly the site manager, Ms
Porter, who lives in Burgeo, they have tried their
darnedest to get the additional nurse practitioner, but
one of the problems they are encountering is, when it
comes to the attraction process, the government does
have an attraction incentive whereby anybody who is from
outside this Province who is a nurse practitioner would
get a bonus if they come here to take up employment, but
the same attraction does not apply to anyone within the
Province who might, for example, leave Corner Brook to
go to practice in Ramea.
What we have asked
Western - and they, of course, have to go back to the
minister’s office to get this assurance - is, would
they permit that the attraction bonus would be extended
so that it is not only limited to anyone outside who
might go to these rural areas, where it is difficult to
attract people, but would the attraction bonus also be
extended so that anyone inside the Province who is
prepared for the attraction bonus – it is not a great
sum of money; I think it is about $15,000 a year - would
go to a place like Ramea to provide these services.
Surely it is worth the additional $15,000 attraction
that would be involved here.
I believe the other piece
was that it was only available to new graduates, which
again is very limiting when you consider that obviously
a lot of new graduates today - we are doing our best, as
I understand it, to try to keep them in the Province -
many of these young people prefer to go to bigger
centres, to stay in the capital region, to stay in
Central, to stay in Corner Brook and places like that.
We understand, as well,
that it is not only Ramea that is impacted by this. We
understand that there is one in Stephenville, as well,
that is needed. We understand that there is one needed
in Corner Brook.
Now, obviously if you are
missing one nurse practitioner from the complement in
Corner Brook it is not as heavily felt, nor in
Stephenville, for example. I believe the other one that
they are one down is in Port aux Basques. There are four
in the region. If you are missing one of a hundred, it
is not as bad as when you are missing one of two,
obviously; you are 50 per cent down in your capacity.
So, albeit they are
difficult to attract, we must keep our shoulder to the
wheel in trying to do this, and that is one option that
we would suggest to the minister, that it might be
possible to attract these people to these rural
communities.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. |
