QP Women's Healthcare Investment

CLAUDIA CHENDER: Wow, I hope I can cut through the fearmongering here. There are over 100,000 Nova Scotians on the Need a Family Practice wait-list. That's a fact, but we're short on details. It's unclear how and where attachment is happening and how much of today's budget will be dedicated to getting Nova Scotians attached to primary care. When will all Nova Scotians be attached to ongoing primary care?

HON. MICHELLE THOMPSON « » : It's certainly a real privilege for me to be back in this chair, having seen the efforts of the last three and a half years come to fruition - all of the work, all of the investment. Over 60,000 people have been attached in the last six months through the efforts, by looking at competitive negotiations with all of our health care workers, by increasing the number of seats through the PACE program that just started to bring internationally educated medical students and graduates to this province to care for Nova Scotians. We are expanding scope of practice. All of these things have come together and worked so that across this province, more and more people are being attached every single month.

CLAUDIA CHENDER: So we don't know when all Nova Scotians will be attached to primary care, and this budget is letting down hundreds of thousands of women and gender-diverse people. There is a lack of clarity on when or if the Menopause Centre for Excellence will be delivered. There is no money for improved diagnostic testing like breast screening and HPV tests. And we've been sitting on federal money available to make birth control free. It isn't free. It isn't in the budget. Why is this government not investing in women's health care?

MICHELLE THOMPSON « » : Certainly, that is not an accurate representation of what's happening in this province. I will be happy to tell everybody about all of the investments in Estimates and I'm estimating that I'll be up for quite some time, because I have a fair amount to talk about.

I do want to assure people that we have invested in women's health. We will have a Menopause Centre of Excellence in this province. We have invested in women's care through cystoscopy and in the IWK, we looked at ways in which we can support women's health across this province. We understand that women expect excellent care and we are happy to be the government that will deliver it.