|
Petition
Presented May 28, 2009
Lack of medical services at the Ramea Clinic
Home
| In the House | Petitions
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I would not want the
government members, particularly the Minister of Health,
to think that any of our problems have gone away,
particularly the one concerning the clinic in Ramea. I
have spoken on that as well, I think twelve times since
this session.
The minister keeps
talking about the recruitment and retention. The issue,
of course, that we have in Ramea is that the facility is
set to have two nurse practitioners. We only have one.
So, 50 per cent of the required and dedicated workforce
there does not exist. We have been trying to supplement
it with LPNs and sometimes a nurse comes over from
Burgeo to help out whenever possible, but that is not a
stable service. That only happens when somebody
voluntarily agrees to come from Burgeo. They are not
required to, and Western Health cannot force them to do
that, so they only come over when and if they feel like
it. They have been trying to do their best, but
obviously we need the other nurse practitioner.
The minister says that
under the new nurses’ deal, of course, he has talked
about this recruitment and retention. Hopefully this is
going to work in the case of Ramea, because as it
currently is designed it will not work. The only nurse
practitioner who can be recruited under the current
process is that you have to be either a first-year
graduate or you have to be from outside the Province.
Special circumstances
require special needs; special needs require special
solutions. If that program as it currently exists, of
recruitment, is not working, we need to look at the
possibility of not having it apply to rural Newfoundland
and let nurses, for example, who might be in this
Province, who are prepared to go to the Ramea area to
work - why can’t they avail of the recruitment process
that exists?
By having such a
narrowly-defined recruitment process you are hurting
communities in rural Newfoundland, not only in Ramea but
also in the community of François, also in the
community of Grey River. They are subject, as it is, to
very limited and unstable medical services. They only
get it, for example, down the coast in Grey River and
François, as a result of clinics on sometimes a bi-,
tri-, or weekly basis. Quite often you could have a
clinic set but if the weather is bad the clinic does not
occur. Then they could be an extended period of time
again; it could go for five or six weeks before somebody
gets in there.
It is very urgent, it
exists, and it can be solved if the Minister of Health
and Western Health would turn their attention to this
problem. Unfortunately, Western Health cannot act
without the approval and consent of the minister.
The minister knows about
this. Whenever he or someone in his department is
prepared to deal with it, that is where the ball lays
right now. Hopefully, they will pick the ball up and run
with it so that the people of that area of the Province
are not disadvantaged any more.
Thank you. |
