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Petition
Presented September 8, 2009
Lack of
Medical Services in Ramea,
François and Grey River
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MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate an
opportunity to once again deliver a petition on behalf
of the people of Ramea, François and Grey River, with
respect to the provision of medical services to those
communities. I have given dozens of these petitions in
this House, and now, of course, we are months removed
from the last time I had an opportunity to do that, but
the circumstances, they have changed somewhat. The
petition is still relevant. We did, of course, always
have, or supposed to have two nurse practitioners in the
Town of Ramea which services that area. We have always
been short one. The most we ever were successful in
having was one nurse practitioner. Lo and behold, that
person, that individual has given notice that effective
September 14 she is leaving. In fact, she submitted her
resignation to Western Health and moved on. So we are
left now with absolutely, or were left up until this
Friday, I understand, with no nurse practitioners here
whatsoever.
Now, thank you to the
people of Western Health who deal with this. They have
been fortunate, so far, as a temporary remedy, to
contract two nurses who would service the area on a
temporary basis, two weeks on and two weeks off. I think
they have a commitment from one nurse but they are still
waiting to confirm the availability of the second
person, but again, it is temporary. It is not permanent
and it does not give the necessary stability that a
person needs, because when this individual goes there to
work now, he or she, they are on call 24-7. For the
two-week period they are there, they are on call every
minute of every day for fourteen straight days.
Also, we pointed out to
the minister in the past some idiosyncrasy, shall we
say, between how people get treated in other parts of
the Province versus how they have been treating them.
God knows that Ramea, Grey River and François are as
remote as any place you are going to get in Newfoundland
as a remote community. It is certainly as remote as many
of the communities on the Labrador Coast. No different.
Yet, if you are a health care provider and goes up to
the Labrador Coast, you get incentives. They give you an
incentive to recruit you and an incentive to retain you.
There are also provisions, for example, whereby if a
person comes into town they will assist them with their
daily living allowances. They can provide them with
facilities.
My understanding is that
there are two such facilities on Ramea Island that is
owned by Western Health, where the nurse practitioners
or the nurses can stay but if they come in on a
short-term basis the department actually charges them
rent. Now, can you imagine! Not only are you having
difficulty getting somewhere, you have a facility there
that you own and you get somebody to come in to provide
the service, and you tell that person you have to pay
for the rental? I mean, that is just unbelievable.
Hopefully, the
distinctions that currently exist between how
practitioners get treated in those areas of rural
Newfoundland versus how they get treated in other areas
of our Province, I think we should have some consistent
tools that we apply so that again, everybody gets
treated fairly. The solution is only temporary, it is
not permanent. Hopefully, the new Minister of Health
will get an opportunity to address it so that we can
have a permanent long-term solution for the medical
needs of the people of those communities.
Thank you. |
