PEI’S health-care services will be ‘realigned,’ says minister

CHARLOTTETOWN — No hospital across Prince Edward Island will be spared the knife as Health Minister Doug Currie looks to rein in ballooning health-care spending.

Health P.E.I., which operates health- care services in the province, is the only area of government that will see an increase in its budget.

Health P. E. I’s budget will increase by 3.5 per cent this year.

However, health-care spending in the province is increasing at a rate of 6.5 per cent annually, which means cuts need to be made.

Currie said status quo is no longer an option.

When asked if that may mean shutting down rural hospitals, the health minister said: “There will be a realignment of services in the province.”

Currie added: “Services and how we access those services in communities will be strategically tied in to what the needs are in communities all across Prince Edward Island.”

The provincial government will bring down its austerity budget in mid-april, likely April 17.

The province is grappling with a deficit that now tops $80 million. That’s twice as much as expected.

Finance Minister Wes Sheridan said the 3.5 per cent increase in health-care spending is one of the largest hikes in health-care spending in Canada. He said every province is struggling to bring health-care spending in line.

“It’s a tough thing to do when you have a high-demand department,” Sheridan said.

“This is a tough, tough budget.”

Currie said the Corpus Sanchez report, which was designed by an international management firm and lays out the future of health-care delivery in the province, will help guide the province as it struggles to bring its health-care spending in line.

The health minister said the province has already adopted many of the report’s recommendations.

“When we came into government in 2007, the health-care budget in the province of Prince Edward Island was approximately $ 370 million. We are potentially going to see that health-care budget coming in, within five years, at approximately $530 to $540 million.”

While Health P.E.I. will see an increase in its budget, the Department of Health and Wellness’s budget will be cut by at least three per cent.

The department is responsible for the chief public health officer, health systems planning, recruitment and retention as well as sports, recreation and healthy living.

“We’re certainly well down the road in respect to system transformation,” said Currie.

“But we will have to be making some decisions on services to Islanders in facilities all across Prince Edward Island for Health P.E.I. to meet its targets. We will be looking at service reductions.”

On Wednesday, opposition health critic James Aylward asked why the Liberals were saying the federal government was reducing the transfers.

They are actually going up six per cent, Aylward said.

In an interview, Sheridan said the six per cent is the national average for the increase in health transfers, but that isn’t how much P.E.I. is getting.

In three of the last four years, P.E.I. averaged about 4.6 per cent increases, Sheridan said.

“P.E.I. gets 4.6 per cent, meaning someone was getting more than six.” P.E.I. Health Minister Doug Currie walks to Province House Thursday in Charlottetown.