The PEI Liberals swept to power
May 28 in one of the most dramatic elections in the
tiny province's history. Healthcare issues took centre
stage in an election that turned Prince Edward Island's
legislature on its head, as the Progressive Conservative
majority — firmly in place for 11 years under leader
Pat Binns — dropped from a commanding 23 of 27
Legislative Assembly seats to just four, with the Robert
Ghiz-led Grits leaping from four seats to 23.
But the new government inherits
a province with a troubled healthcare service. The province
has been hit hard by a shortage of healthcare professionals,
particularly family doctors. The province's Department
of Health puts the number of Islanders without a family
doctor at 4,000.
Part of the Liberals' phenomenal
success may be attributable to Mr Ghiz's most salient
campaign promise on healthcare: that every Islander
will have a family physician by the end of Mr Ghiz's
first term, four years from now.
MORE
THAN MONEY
The paucity of physicians, says Dr Scott Cameron, president
of the Medical Society of PEI, has been brought on in
part by uncompetitive physician recruitment bonuses
and has resulted in treatment delays.
To attract new doctors to the province
the newly elected Liberals pledged during the campaign
to establish a $1.5 million rural doctor recruitment
program, which will jump to a total of $4.1 million
over the next two years. "Recruitment bonuses are improving
but they're not entirely competitive at this point,"
says Dr Cameron. "There's a lot of competition from
Western Canada, but I don't think monetary incentives
are the only thing we have to take into consideration.
It's the quality of life too," he says. "Physicians
would be able to enjoy the lifestyle Prince Edward Island
offers if they weren't always so busy."
COMMUNITY
CARE
The doctor shortage is taking its toll on the Island's
remaining physicians.
For Dr David Stewart, an FP in
the small town of Cornwall, the shortage of family physicians
is palpable. Since 1991 he's seen 400 new residents
arrive in the community and the departure of the only
other family physician in the area. "The number of hours
I work hasn't gone up, but the intensity sure has,"
he says. If he goes on vacation, patients in the area
must travel to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown
to see a physician. "Community healthcare is very important,"
he says. "People shouldn't have to travel from our community
to get the care they need."
BUILDING
ACCESS
Despite the province's health human resources challenges,
Pat Binns' incumbent PC government had begun plans before
the election to build a centralized hospital in Bloomfield,
West Prince, PEI. The plan would have converted the
region's O'Leary and Alberton community hospitals into
care facilities for seniors.
But the Liberals are unconvinced
building a new hospital would solve the healthcare needs
of West Prince's rural communities. "PEI has the lowest
accessibility to primary healthcare within the Maritime
provinces," Liberal chief of staff Chris LeClair explains.
"We need to bring more doctors to the community hospitals
because care in those areas is below standard for the
Maritime region." The Liberal campaign proposed a 30-month
moratorium on construction of the new hospital so resources
can be directed to the existing community hospitals,
and the election victory seems to make the hospital's
construction unlikely.
RESIDENCY
REBUKE
Mr Ghiz has proposed to expand PEI's family medicine
residency program, an idea also brought up by the Tories
during the campaign. The promise, however, may not be
feasible in light of the ongoing shortage, Dr Cameron
says. Additional teaching duties at PEI hospitals, he
says, will only reduce the amount of time doctors have
to see their patients.
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