Address the Doctor Shortage in Nova Scotia - QP
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Speaker, I want to ask the Premier about the real state of health care here in Nova Scotia. We hear daily from people waiting to be attached to primary care in their communities. One unattached rural Nova Scotian without transportation used to get a year of a life-saving prescription from a walk-in. But now with Maple, he can only get 90 days. He bikes 40 kilometres to get that medication. Maple, I'll remind the Premier and the Speaker, is a private company that is now being paid public fees for each service on top of its multi-million-dollar untendered contract. I guess this is better than not getting medication at all. My question to the Premier is: Will the Premier tell us when the 144,000 Nova Scotians on the Need a Family Practice wait-list are going to be attached to a real, live, human, health care practitioner in a collaborative care clinic in their community?
THE PREMIER « » : I'm very proud of the work that the Health Authority and the minister and the department have done to make sure that Nova Scotians have different options to access care. Of course, the member has mentioned virtual care. That is an access point that's helping many Nova Scotians, hundreds of Nova Scotians every day, saving them travel time, saving them wait time.
Speaker, the member should be aware that when a virtual care appointment happens and it's determined that the patient needs to see somebody, they can get into one of our primary care clinics. They can do it very quickly, in a matter of days. I think that happens 20 per cent of time, that the virtual care person says, "I really want you to see somebody," and they get them into a clinic within a couple of days. Virtual care is part of the future of health care and it will be here to stay. It's an important part of the future of health care.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Speaker, I want to note that every time I have asked a question about when people on the Need a Family Practice wait-list will have attachment to a primary care provider, we have not gotten an answer, so we're going to tick this off as one more time.
It is now commonplace to hear of people waiting hours in the city for an ambulance, whether it's kids lying on the football field in the middle of Halifax, in the cold, with an injury, waiting for an ambulance to arrive, or the family in Chezzetcook who were told when they called 911 that there was no ambulance available when their son had a life-threatening injury. A paramedic said about that case, this is happening literally daily - someone has died or they weren't able to be treated on time. I will table that.
I'd like to remind the Premier that there is no amount of innovation that will replace a trained paramedic or nurse in a medical emergency.
My question to the Premier « » : When is the Premier going to make sure that when people call 911, an ambulance shows up?
THE PREMIER « » : Nobody wants to hear those types of stories, certainly not our government, certainly not those health care professionals who are responding and doing incredible work to support patients of this province.
Since we are in the mood to remind members of things, I will remind that member of the Patient Access to Care Act, which was a nation-leading piece of legislation that passed through this House, that talks about common sense credentialling, helps us get doctors here, helps us get nurses here, paramedics and health care professionals.
That member voted against the Patient Access to Care Act. That's a good piece of legislation that will help get us the health care professionals here that we need.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : I will remind the Premier that we on this side of the House support democracy and that Act, but many of the Premier's acts concentrated the ability to decide whether someone could practice here in the hands of one minister and that is inappropriate. We echoed every single health regulator in the province in coming to that decision and asking them to take it back and make it a better bill.
Whatever the innovations for health care that the Premier loves to announce, let's hope that they work better than the virtual care pilot in Ontario, which we heard today actually did nothing to alleviate the stress on emergency rooms and was mostly used by people who already had a physician. It didn't work, and I'll table that.
The Premier is poised to give Maple up to $20 million for uncertain returns and no impact on attaching patients to permanent primary care.
My question to the Premier « » : When is the Premier going to do what it takes to actually fix the health care system?
THE PREMIER « » : When we met as Premiers this week, we talked about innovations that are happening across the country. Sometimes innovations - when you're first out of the gate, you've got to pivot a little bit and get it just right, but that shouldn't stop the attempts at progress.
Our virtual care pilot program we have here is different than the one in Ontario. What I would say to the member, with your editorial about democracy, is maybe the member wants to speak to the nurses' college, which has got on board and are processing 18,000 applications. Maybe the member wants to speak to the College of Physicians, which is getting onboard and recognizing certain schools.
When it comes to licensing and accrediting health care professionals, I'll listen to those people, not to the Leader of the NDP.