|
Petition
Presented September 9, 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 another
opportunity to have a few words again about the lack of
medical services, particularly nursing services in the
community of Ramea. It is not only Ramea, of course,
that gets served by the personnel when we do have
somebody there. It is also the communities of Grey River
and François, because there are clinics down the coast
from time to time to service those people as well.
Of course, we have a
situation where it is supposed to have two nurse
practitioners. We have never, to my knowledge, ever had
two. The best we have ever been able to do is have one
nurse practitioner. That lady has resigned effective
September 14, this month. A few days from now we will
have no nurse practitioner in the community of Ramea and
servicing these other communities.
Now, thankfully, we have
a short-term band-aid solution. They are going to put
two RNs there on a two-week on, two-week off basis, but
that is only a band-aid. That is not intended to be
permanent. The permanent solution is, of course, to have
the residents who live there, are part of the community
and provide the services on a full-time basis.
The problems we encounter
is when we go to the Department of Health and Western
Health to ask for some assistance in how we might
recruit these people, it seems that there is different
criteria around the Province. For example, you can pay a
nurse or a nurse practitioner who goes to Labrador, you
can pay that person a retention bonus, or an attraction
bonus, recruitment bonus and a retention bonus, but you
cannot do the same thing in Ramea because that is not
considered to have the same classification. That is not
considered rural. Now I do not know what is different
between rural Ramea and rural somewhere on the Coast of
Labrador. I see little distinction, but yet, somewhere
the powers that be make that distinction. So you cannot
use those vehicles to attract personnel; totally
discriminatory again. One group gets it, the other does
not, and they are treated like second-class citizens.
They also have the issue,
of course, of where they stay when they come there. A
resident of the community called the Minister of Health
a few days ago, had a conversation with him. The
minister, of course - probably because he never had a
briefing note, he does not get those - he was not clued
into the circumstances. He was not aware that there are
even facilities in Ramea where they can live, and there
is. There are two facilities in Ramea where nursing
staff can live there.
MR. ORAM: What
are you talking about? (Inaudible).
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: I
say to the minister, maybe if he listened he would know
what I am talking about instead of talking to his
colleague next to him. Don’t spout off at me: What are
you talking about? The first thing you have to do is
listen if you want to hear.
Mr. Speaker, the bottom
line is they get treated differently. There are all
kinds of incentives given to anyone else who might want
to go anywhere else to work, but they are not prepared
to give those incentives in Ramea. That is
discriminatory.
So, again, will the
Minister of Health get his head around this issue and at
least tell us again why we cannot have the same
attraction bonuses, the same retention bonuses, the same
living arrangements for personnel who might be prepared
to go live and work in rural South Western Newfoundland
that we can get elsewhere in this Province? It is a
pretty simple question, and hopefully, there should be
an answer.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. |
