Opposition wants Prime Minister and Health Minister to testify on health care plans

Prince Edward Island’s Official Opposition calls on Premier Dennis King and Health Minister Ernie Hudson to testify before a Legislative Assembly committee to outline their government’s health care plans health, especially if there are privatization plans.

On Monday, King met with his counterparts in Ontario and the Maritimes to discuss Canada’s health care crisis and issues around staffing shortages, including shorter hours in hospital emergency rooms, backlogs surgeries and desperate attempts to attract and retain doctors.

Doug Ford’s government recently unveiled a plan to fund more surgeries at private clinics in Ontario, and at the summit there were questions about whether the Maritime premiers were considering making similar changes.

Privatization talks have had political parties, unions and even the CEO of Health PEI talking. this week.

“It is essential that they share their plan publicly with Islanders and that they know how they will be better taken care of by this government,” Green Party health spokesperson Michele Beaton told Kerry. Campbell on Friday. CBC News: Compass.

Hudson says there is no privatization

King said the delivery of health care needs to be « fundamentally different » in years to come, but in an interview Tuesday with CBC News, Hudson said that doesn’t mean the province is considering privatizing parts of the health care system. health.

One of the Green Party’s ideas for immediately improving the health care system is to allow nurse practitioners to play a bigger role in Prince Edward Island, Beaton said. She wants to know what barriers prevent them from working to the full scope of their training.

« Is this a legal issue, is this an insurance issue? My God, we should be able to sort this out, » Beaton said. « If we have the prime minister at the table, we should be able to break down any of those barriers. »

The Standing Committee on Health meets on August 31. At that meeting, Beaton said its members will discuss the future with plans to call the prime minister and health minister to testify.