VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

PRICE OF INACTION ON LTC

Long-term care is the conversation of the day. For many years, the province’s nursing home providers, their representative associations and families of those in care have been alerting the Department of Health and Wellness about the issue of primary health in long-term-care settings.

In 2006, Dalhousie University School of Nursing, along with the then Capital District Health Authority, the DHW and Northwoodcare Inc. undertook a research project about the role of nurse practitioners in nursing homes. The research concluded the nurse practitioner role was appropriate and invaluable in such settings. Then what happened? The DHW determined that they could not fund these positions for nursing homes.

Now, 13 years later, we find ourselves in crisis for care of nursing home residents and the rush to recruit nurse practitioners is on! How could Health Minister Randy Delorey stand before the public and say he has just heard of this issue in long-term care?

Why is it that our health-care bureaucracy is only reactive and not visionary? If they’d had the courage to act years ago on the evidence of the research illustrating the value of nurse practitioners, nursing home residents would be secure in their access for primary-care needs. Also, with treatment in long-term care being overseen by nurse practitioners, perhaps the need for transfer to hospitals could be avoided in many cases.

Nothing I am saying is new “news.” Who is listening to the providers of services to those in long-term care? Who is concerned about the value we place on our aging population? Who is valuing the doctors currently looking after residents in long-term care?

Doctors are not compensated the same for nursing home visits as they are when people come for an office visit, as stated by Shannex spokesperson Katherine VanBuskirk in your Dec. 4 article, “Doctor shortages impacting the elderly.”

There is concern over the omission of the long promised “long-term-care strategy” for health care. With the critical situations facing Nova Scotians for every level of health care, we need evidence that those in leadership positions are capable of visionary planning for our future and appropriate action, now!

Sandra Bauld, HRM

BREAK THE CHINA IMPASSE

Two Canadian men have been sitting in jail cells in China for about a year, and yet we do nothing. At the same time, we have a Huawei executive living the life of luxury in one of her residences in Vancouver.

Apparently, the Chinese are annoyed with us for arresting this lady a year ago on behalf of our dear friend, the president of the United States, with whom our prime minister claims to have a wonderful relationship. Yet he sits on his hands while these two men rot in hell c/o Chinese President Xi Jinping.

What’s wrong with this equation? If this wimp we currently have for a prime minister says one more time, “We are only following the rule of law” on behalf of a Trump-ruled government, then we will be complicit in the deaths of these two Canadians.

When will the prime minister and the Foreign Affairs department, moving forward, realize that Trump only uses people as hostages in his dealmaking?

Well, if this is moving forward, I think we’d be much better off moving backwards, to a time when we had heroes the likes of Ken Taylor, who was our ambassador in Tehran in the late 1970s. He, in league with the Americans, pulled off “The Canadian Caper,” helping U.S. citizens escape Iran.

Maybe someone should set up one of those GoFundMe pages for this poor soul in Vancouver to either fly her to America or, better still, back to China with the provision that our two men are waiting at the airport to be picked up when she’s dumped off.

I’d be most happy to contribute to this kind of modern-day diplomatic solution and I’m willing to bet, so would the Canadian farmers who have been financially affected the most during this sad episode in our history. Cliff Williams, Windsor