Hundreds rally for rural P.E.I. health system

Hundreds of people gathered in Souris Tuesday night to talk about health care services in rural Prince Edward Island.

The Islandwide Hospital Access Committee, the group hosting the event, says rural P.E.I. is getting the short end of the stick when it comes to health care. Its meeting grew a big crowd to Souris Regional School. Committee chair Alan MacPhee said it has heard a long list of concerns from people in rural P.E.I.

"Ambulance response time, access to urgent and important hospital care — i.e. emergency — mental health and addictions, doctor placement, having enough doctors," said MacPhee.

"Rural health care is just not a priority. We think it's rural discrimination." 

Souris resident Valery O'Connor is particularly concerned about ambulance response time.

"I've had two experiences where I've had to wait between 40 minutes to an hour for an ambulance on a good day in the summer. What could I expect in the winter?" she said.

Health PEI says it has begun the recruitment process to add more doctors in Souris, noting that the province now has 93 family physicians, as opposed to 81 in 2006. The province also began adding ambulances in 2007. It said average response time for Souris and surrounding areas in 2014 was just under 14 minutes.

Health PEI also noted there is currently no wait time for addiction services in the area. There is a wait time for mental health services, but some vacancies have recently been filled and the agency expects these will improve.

McPhee said it's not enough. The committee held the meeting to inform people so they take action to change policy, and it held up the example of Nathan Bushey. While on dialysis he lobbied to stop the slated shutdown of dialysis treatment in Souris.

"People can only make good decisions with good information," said Bushey.

"If people aren't getting the information then they can't really be making any decisions."

Bushey's lobby was successful. Health PEI has fixed up the dialysis facility and it's expected to re-open March 16.

The Islandwide Hospital Access Committee is also calling for the creation of citizen advisory boards in each hospital on P.E.I. The chairs of those boards would communicate with Health PEI about what is needed in their areas.

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