‘We don’t think it’s the way to go’
Government ‘missing the boat’ on health-care issues, says NDP Leader Gary Burrill
The provincial government is “missing the boat” on healthcare issues, in particular longterm nursing care, says Nova Scotia NDP Leader Gary Burrill.
Burrill, who was on a crossprovince tour to talk to people following the wrap-up of the fall sitting of the Nova Scotia legislature, sat down for an interview with the Tri-County Vanguard in Barrington Passage on Oct. 17.
“The fall session was particularly unproductive,” said Burrill. “The things that people talk about that they need the provincial government to act on, these things haven’t been dealt with, particularly health care.”
Burrill said the fall session was the first time the government faced the legislature since they closed the community hospitals in New Waterford and North Sydney, Cape Breton. He said there was a lot of focus on the government’s attempt to “shut down things in smaller communities and move them into larger centres.”
“That’s not a good thing. They closed down all the school boards, now that’s all in Halifax. They closed down all the district health authorities, now that’s all in Halifax. They closed off those two community hospitals and centralized them into Glace Bay and Sydney. In our view this is exactly the wrong direction to be going in,” Burrill said. “These community hospitals like Roseway (in Shelburne) have a very important place in our healthcare system. If we lose our community hospitals we are losing a lot, so we made a big focus trying to point out the mistakes and follies. We don’t think it’s the way to go.”
SHARES CONCERNS ABOUT ROSEWAY
Burrill said he shares the concerns of Shelburne County residents on the future of Roseway Hospital, noting Premier Stephen McNeil and Health Minister Randy Delorey were asked repeatedly during the fall session for a commitment that Roseway Hospital was going to remain open.
“They said a lot of words, but they did not commit to keeping the Roseway open. This is exactly what happened in New Waterford and North Sydney,” Burrill said, noting when MLAs from those areas questioned the government on the status of their community hospitals earlier this year they were “never given a straight answer” and then the government were closing them.
MORE NEEDED ON NURSING HOME CARE
Burrill said the government is “missing the boat on” is nursing home care.
“We have major problems. There’s not enough nursing homes to begin,” he said, noting more than 20 per cent of the hospital beds in the province are occupied by people waiting to be admitted to a long-term care facility because there is no place in a nursing home for them.
“In nursing homes there is programming, recreation directors, that sort of thing. In the hospital, they’re doing the best they can but it’s not a nursing home. It’s not the same deal and it’s much more expensive for us,” said Burrill.
“It costs more than $1,000 a day to look after someone in hospital but it’s only a couple hundred dollars a day to look after them in a nursing home, but the government has to invest in more beds,” he said, adding the government has also cut back funding to nursing homes by $5 million, which has resulted in nursing homes having their “hands tied” on things like recreational programming, food and staffing.
IS THE MESSAGE GETTING ACROSS?
Burrill said even with rallies expressing concerns about the health-care system being held across the province, and repeated questioning by opposition parties in the legislature, he doesn’t think the message is getting through to government.
Every day in the legislature “the government’s answer is the same, everything is wonderful in the health-care system in Nova Scotia.”
He said the opposition MLAs are accused by the government of fearmongering, but Burrill said this clearly isn’t people’s experience.
“If you go and ask people, probably about half are going to talk about some aspect of the health-care system – either they haven’t got a doctor, their ER is not open, they have somebody in long-term care and concerned they are not getting the care they should ...”
Burrill also questions the wisdom of the government’s decision to redevelop the QEII Health Sciences Centre as a P3 (Public Private Partnership) project, given the province’s recent experience with P3 schools.
“This is going to impact everyone across the province. The hospital is going to be developed, built and owned by a private company and we as a province are going to lease it back for 30 years. That’s a big mistake in my view. We ought to own it ourselves,” he said, noting the province went that route 20 years ago when they built 39 P3 schools and leased them for 20 years.
“Those leases just came up and it cost us $228 million to buy them back,” said Burrill, adding the auditor general has said the P3 school projects cost the province a lot more than it should have cost.
Burrill said he also feels the Liberal majority government is not listening to the ideas and suggestions of the opposition parties.
With almost half the MLAs in opposition, he said, “you can be sure those people have good ideas and suggestions and the people in those communities need to be represented.”
But, Burrill said, the government has the attitude it’s a majority and will do what it wants.