Health care takes front seat as N.L. legislature opens for the fall

Health care is top of mind for Newfoundland and Labrador's opposition leaders — and they only expect 15 days to raise their alarm bells. 

The House of Assembly reopened on Monday for its fall sitting, just two hours after the governing Liberals announced a location for a new hospital that will eventually replace St. Clare's in St. John's. 

PC Leader Tony Wakeham kicked off question period by probing Premier Andrew Furey on his government's ability to recruit health-care professionals to the province. 

"After nine years of Liberal government, 175,000 people in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador are without a family physician," Wakeham said. "I ask the premier, where is the human resource plan for health professionals that the Liberal government said they had and then didn't have?"

Furey said the province's struggles with health-care human resources are not isolated to Newfoundland and Labrador, but progress is being made.

"We have the most robust incentive and recruitment package of any province across the country," Furey said. "We're starting to see actual tangible results."

According to Furey, those results include 146 new doctors since April 2023, 850 new nurses and new infrastructure.

"It will all come together, but it will take time," he said.

Hospital diversions

MHA for Terra Nova, Lloyd Parrott, added to the PC's collective concern surrounding health care in the province.

He said the Clarenville hospital no longer has internal medicine doctors — meaning if someone shows up to the emergency room with a stroke, heart attack, or serious infection, they won't be admitted.

Instead, he said, they will be stabilized and sent to another facility.

Parrott said he brought the issue to Health Minister John Hogan in July. He didn't want to bring it up in the legislature, but he didn't have much choice.

"[I] gave him all the opportunity in the world to fix this. I tried to do it the right way without coming in here and asking questions. I wasn't trying to politicize anything," Parrott said. "People, no matter where you live in Newfoundland and Labrador, deserve the same level of health care."

Hogan told reporters that Clarrenville has one internal medicine specialist who can work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

"After hours, there will have to be some diversions," he said.

Parrott said the region had three other internal medicine doctors. Two moved to St. John's. The other is on maternity leave.

N.L. Health Services is working on filling those gaps, according to Hogan, but he said internal medicine is a specialty that's challenging to recruit. 

Housing is health care

Meanwhile, the NDP asked four questions during question period, instead focusing on housing. NDP Leader Jim Dinn said believes the two topics are interconnected.

"You cannot talk about building and putting in a new hospital out on Kenmount Terrace without addressing one of the fundamental things that is probably causing people to be chronically ill," Dinn told reporters.

His first question in the legislature highlighted a protest about no-fault evictions and those left homeless after a tent encampment was torn down in St. John's.

Then he asked the province why they criminalize the homeless. 

Housing Minister John Abbott declined the accusation. Instead, he highlighted some of the province's work to improve housing.

"We know that there's more work to be done, but as we set out in our plans, we are expanding housing units across the province. As time moves on, we will have fully addressed, I think, the housing challenge here in the province," Abbott said.

Dinn believes addressing the need for housing will help relieve some of the pressure facing the health-care system.

"Underlying the health-care system is housing, if you look at the social determinants of health, housing is very much a piece of it," he said.

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