P.E.I. PCs want to improve rural health care to take pressure off cities

P.E.I.'s Progressive Conservative Party held a news conferenceWednesdayafternoon to outline its ideas for improving rural health care.

Party Leader James Aylward described rural health-care services as broken and in upheaval.

The party laid out afive-point plan.

• Restoring regional health boards.
• Creating greater roles for communities, the private sector and local health professionals in recruiting new health workers.
• Refocusing retention efforts.
• Implementing electronic health records to allow for better sharing of information between health professionals.
• Implement a collaborative care model with expanded scope of practice for all health professionals.

Aylwardsaid the province needs to bring back more local control with the return of regional health boards.

"We had engaged citizens in our local communities who had a voice and say in how the health system in their communities was run, and we desperately need to get back to that again," he said.

"When you have everything just run from one office in Charlottetown they don't really have their finger on the pulse of what's happening out in the communities."

In an email statement the government says the province's health authority "is designed to be overseen by a board of directors currently a trustee is fulfilling this role."

"In addition, two 12-member community health engagement committees have been established,enhancing patient and public participation in health planning and decision making by [providing]feedback to the minister of health and wellness and Health PEI on provincial strategies for health-care delivery and identify issues from a regional perspective," the email said.

'We don't even do exit interviews'

Aylward said the recruitment and retention unitis under-resourced, and retention in particular is suffering because of it.

"Right now we don't even do exit interviews as to why these health-care professionals are leaving P.E.I.," he said.

"That's a first step. If we don't know what the problem is how can we fix it?"

In the emailthe province saidthere is "a health recruitment and retention secretariat in place to facilitatehealth human-resource planning and undertake recruitment and retention efforts to meet the current and future needs for physicians, nurses and allied health professions."

"The secretariat is made up of dedicated staff, working to fill vacancies within the health care system; in addition they do utilize additional professional recruiting firms when necessary, mainly forhard-to-recruit health professions."

Weakness in the rural health-care system, said Aylward, spills over into the province's two cities, resulting in overcrowded emergency rooms and walk-in clinics in Charlottetown and Summerside. Fixing rural problems will help everyone, he added.

Aylward said the party's plans are based on months of conversations with front-line health-care workers.

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