Finalized in 30 days
Premier defends timing of Cape Breton health plan
Premier Stephen McNeil says the final details on the plan for the delivery of health care in Cape Breton unveiled by his government this week were finalized in the last 30 days.
McNeil made the comment during a post-cabinet scrum and teleconference when asked, in light of opposition MLAs regularly raising the futures of the New Waterford Consolidated and Northside General Hospital in question period during the spring legislature sitting, when was the decision made to move forward with this plan.
“The final details of the plan would have been the last 30 days when they were finalized,” McNeil said. He went on to say that conversations about hospital infrastructure in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality have gone on for years, through successive governments.
The strategy unveiled by the Liberals this week includes the closure of hospitals in North Sydney and New Waterford, to be replaced with new community care centres which will not include emergency departments. It is the elimination of the communities’ ERs, which had experienced chronic staffing shortages resulting in regular closures, that has elicited much of the public outcry against the changes.
“The services that were in those communities two days ago will be there going forward except for the emergency services,” McNeil said.
Officials have said the hospitals won’t close until new facilities are in place. With the closure of those two emergency departments, ERs at the Cape Breton Regional and Glace Bay hospitals are to be expanded.
A nine- to 12-month functional planning process is now to take place, McNeil said that will involve an opportunity for the communities to look at whether there are additional services they may want provided before the final design is determined.
He called the new plan based on the reality of the infrastructure and the delivery of service.
“What is changing really is emergency services,” McNeil said. “All others will remain in more modern up-to-date buildings that will help attract health-care professionals.
“This has been a 20-year project, (but) we’ve finalized this in the last 30 days”
Health critics for both opposition parties, who had both raised questions about the hospitals that are to close in the house this spring, took issue with McNeil’s answer about the timing.
“After us asking him in February what the plan was, there was no plan they said then,” said Northside-Westmount PC MLA Eddie Orrell. “They’re blaming successive governments and they’re blaming and blaming and blaming, but these guys have been in power for five years.
He added the lack of details around how the new facilities will be built is frustrating and causing more anxiety for the communities
He also took issue with the lack of communication in advance of Monday’s announcement, saying sending an advisory of a major infrastructure announcement the evening prior seemed like a way to obstruct the public from taking part.
Cape Breton Centre NDP MLA Tammy Martin said, given the volume of materials and the presentation that was provided to media on Monday announcing the changes, that planning had obviously been well underway for a long time.
“If anybody believes these decisions and presentations could happen within 30 days they are sadly, sadly mistaken.
“When they were asked the hard questions about New Waterford hospital, about Northside General Hospital, when the health minister, Minister Delorey, had the opportunity and was invited here to come and speak to the residents in New Waterford and North Sydney, they ignored us.”
McNeil stressed the changes in emergency care will provide certainty about where the services can be accessed, which isn’t currently the case due to unscheduled closures.
He acknowledged that some doctors said they they’ve felt left out but said there was consultation, including the medical community.
As for the lack of detail about how much the plan will cost to implement, McNeil said as the government starts putting requests for proposals it will communicate more about costs.
“We think it’s more appropriate to make sure that when we put the numbers out there, they’re accurate,” he said.