Fix the ER Crisis in Nova Scotia - QP
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Yesterday, the Premier talked about the national attention that our province is getting on health care. Since he wants to talk about the news, I'll table a few national and international stories about the ER crisis that has worsened since he was elected.
From the New York Post: "Mom Allison Holthoff dies after waiting seven hours in Nova Scotia ER." I'll table that. From CTV Vancouver - about Cape Breton Regional. From the UK Independent: "Woman who died after waiting seven hours in ER told husband she thought she was dying."
The situation in our emergency rooms is worse now than when these were written. When is the government going to admit that there is a serious issue to deal with in our emergency rooms?
THE PREMIER « » : Speaker, those are obviously incredibly tragic outcomes that are devastating. All Nova Scotians feel the pain, for sure, when that happens. I know that I personally feel that pain in a very big way, and I know that the people working in those emergency departments take that very personally. It has a huge impact on them as well.
We have tremendous people working in our emergency departments. They go to work every single day - day and night - to support Nova Scotians, to be there for Nova Scotians. Nobody looks away from a tragic outcome like that, but that does not change the fact that there are incredible strides being made to improve what happens in our health care system overall.
I am very proud of the work the team is doing, but we feel terrible pain when those tragedies happen.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Yesterday, and it seems again today, the Premier is dismissing the issue of increasing deaths in our emergency rooms. Yesterday, he said that the very nature of the department is that not everyone can be saved, and that the proportion of people dying is remaining steady. It's not, and I'll table that.
He also took the opportunity to plug a new app that is not going to help someone in critical condition waiting in an emergency room hallway. While the Premier is announcing apps, people are dying. When is he going to treat this like the serious issue that it is?
THE PREMIER « » : Nova Scotians elected us to fix health care and we are very focused on that. There are high volumes in our emergency departments. We know that for sure. We know there are incredible innovations that are coming to help divert people away from emergency departments. The app is part of that.
There are many moving parts. Diverting people away from the emergency department helps those in the emergency department by controlling the volumes a little bit. If there are people who are turning to emergency departments for things where there are other places they could go and be better served - like the pharmacy clinics, the mobile clinics, virtual care - that's a good thing when we can divert people away.
The importance of the app - and I hope the member would recognize this at some point - is if we can divert people away from the emergency department that helps our emergency departments. It is all tied together, Speaker, and we're doing incredible innovations working with health care professionals.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Yesterday, the Premier said the issue was that people were coming in at a high triage level; today it's people who are coming in because they didn't go to the pharmacy clinic. All we are asking is to acknowledge that this is a problem, and to understand what we're going to do about it.
A hospital staff person explained that one man died recently after waiting five hours in an ambulance hallway. It was five hours and forty minutes because they didn't realize he needed a blood transfusion - for five hours, because of all the dysfunction in the emergency department.
More people died in the first nine months this year than in the entire, record-breaking year previous. Staff in ERs are going above and beyond, but they need this government to do more.
Will the Premier please acknowledge that this is a problem, and tell us how he is going to fix it?
THE PREMIER « » : Speaker, when there's a negative outcome, it is a problem, and it is painful for people. There will be people who pass away in emergency departments. It is the very nature of an emergency department that the sickest show up there. There will be situations where people pass in emergency departments, and it is hard on those people working in the departments. It is certainly hard on governments. We take that.
I'd be happy to walk the member through all the various innovations that we've made to improve health care. If I thought they would have a receptive audience, I'd be happy to invest that time. Time and time again we talk about what is happening, but time and time again we see that member stand up in this Chamber and be negative about teachers, saying they make their kids put their hands up; be negative about those working in triage, questioning their ability to triage people. I trust the people delivering services to Nova Scotians.