‘Health care is a human right’
Rally staged at Cape Breton Regional Hospital
More than 100 people attended a rally protesting problems with health care in Cape Breton on Sunday outside the Cape Breton Regional Hospital.
Organized by Lisa Bond and the community group Save Our Services, emergency room closures, lack of family doctors and long wait times for specialists were some things addressed.
“Health care is a human right,” said Tracy MacKay, from Sydney, one of the people at the event.
“Right now I feel like I’m in a third world country as far as health care is concerned.”
MacKay has multiple chronic illnesses and has experienced first hand the problems with health care in Cape Breton. One of the biggest struggles for her has been long wait times.
Kathy Hayden from North Sydney has also been dealing with long wait times to see a specialist for her breathing problems.
“I struggle with every breath and I’ve been waiting seven months to see a specialist. I told my doctor the autopsy will probably tell you what’s wrong,” she said.
“They say there’s no crisis but there is a major crisis.”
People in the crowd had plenty to say as they cheered and shouted questions at the guest speakers like psychologist Todd Leader and NDP leader Gary Burrill. Both travelled from Halifax for the rally.
“There is a health care crisis in Nova Scotia, contrary to what the premier continues to say. And nowhere do we see it any more sharply than we see it in Cape Breton,” Burrill said during an interview after the rally.
One thing that sticks out for Burrill is the number of times emergency rooms are closed in Cape Breton.
“We’ve had a number of weekends when three of the four ERs in the CBRM were entirely closed. Could you imagine if the ERs in Halifax or Dartmouth were closed?” he asked.
“This is entirely unacceptable. It is indicative of the neglect of health care under this government.”
During his speech, Burrill said the emergency room at Northside General Hospital was closed a total of 4,008 hours — or 167 days — in one year.
The Glace Bay Hospital was closed 1,088 hours (45 days) during the same time frame.
“I think it is very important for people to mobilize and make sure the government knows they are not satisfied with the investments that the government is failing to make in health care,” Burrill said.
MLAs Tammy Martin, Eddie Orrell and Alfie MacLeod also spoke at the event, as well as Dist. 2 Coun. Earlene MacMullin. MLA Keith Bain attended the event, but did not speak.
There were no Liberal MLAs in attendance.
This is the second rally organized by Save Our Services. The first happened in September outside Northside General Hospital.
Bond said she hoped to have more people at the rally outside the regional hospital but overall is happy with the event.
“I’ve had a lot of people tell me I can’t make a difference. Well, they can’t keep all of us quiet,” she said.
During his speech, MacLeod repeated the same sentiment.
“The only way our voices will be heard is if we stick together,” he said.
“The reality is government officials can only do so much… when we make noise, we need you to make noise too.”