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Petition
Presented September 9, 2009
Cuts to Lab & X-Ray Services
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MR. SPEAKER: Further
petitions.
The hon. the Leader of
the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I stand today to present
a petition on behalf of residents in the Lewisporte area
and the surrounding area, the 9,000 people in this
Province, in that region, who are impacted by
government’s decision to close X-ray and laboratory
services in their communities.
Mr. Speaker, communities
on the Northern Peninsula, in the Flower’s Cove area,
are also impacted but this petition is directly from the
people in the Lewisporte region.
Mr. Speaker, people fail
to understand government’s rationale to actually cut
this service. It is a service they have enjoyed for more
than fifty years. In fact, it was only two years ago
that the X-ray equipment in this community was replaced,
so the equipment is actually new. They fail to
understand why the minister, today, is taking such a
hard line in closing this particular service. It makes
no sense to them.
Those, Mr. Speaker, who
have spoken out, like the physicians in the area, like
Dr. Penney and like her colleagues, were absolutely
astounded by the response they got from the Minister of
Health when he said: If they do not want to work in a
community that does not have these services they can
leave.
We have spent half our
lives in this Province trying to recruit physicians in
rural communities around Newfoundland and Labrador. It
has never been an easy challenge. In fact, Mr. Speaker,
in the last three years as the Opposition critic in
Health, I have probably asked dozens and dozens of
questions around physician recruitment. It is only a
year ago, when in places like Gander, there were
thousands of people on the wait list to see a doctor,
that were lining up to get in to see doctors.
There were places like in
Labrador West, where they could not recruit physicians,
where people moving into the community did not even have
a family physician that they could go and visit. When
you have people that have been prepared to live and work
in some of the smaller rural areas in this Province for
more than two decades in medical practice, serving the
community and the people, they do it because of the love
they have for their job and for the regions that they
are in. I think it is absolutely appalling that they
were not consulted by government before this decision
was made. They were not listened to after the decision
was made. In fact, they were very abruptly dismissed and
they were told that if you want to leave, you go and
leave. What kind of thanks is that for the service that
these people have given our Province? I think it is
absolutely appalling!
What is even worse, Mr.
Speaker, is that the people in the Lewisporte area,
whether through their MHA or through someone else, had
their hopes built up. They had their hopes built up that
at some point they could have a one-roof medical concept
in their community where they could have all their lab
and X-ray, their clinical operations and their long-term
care facility all under one roof. Well, Mr. Speaker,
that expectation was shattered two weeks ago when the
minister went out there. He said we cannot have a
one-roof concept. We do not have the money to put the
infrastructure in place. We are going to build the
long-term care but lab and X-ray will stay separately.
Mr. Speaker, people accepted that. They accepted that.
They did not make an issue out of it, and then less than
two weeks later they found out, Mr. Speaker, that not
only –
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
I ask the hon. member to
conclude her remarks.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
They found out that not
only were they going to not have a one-roof concept,
they were not going to have the services at all; that
their lab and X-ray was going to be taken all together.
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please! |
