Health minister says closures due to "how doctors choose to practice"
After what could be described as an "epidemic" of emergency room and outpatient closures at Shelburne's Roseway Hospital over the past year, the Nova Scotia Health Authority announcement that Roseway Hospital emergency room in Shelburne would be closing its doors for sixty-six hours over the Thanksgiving weekend, Queens-Shelburne MLA Kim Masland said that "enough is enough".
Masland attempted to address the ER closure issue at Province House during Question Period this past week. Masland rose in the Legislature to ask Randy Delorey, minister of Health and Wellness, why the emergency room continues to close regularly.
During the months of July and August, there were approximately 80 hours of emergency department closures at the Roseway, said a news release from Masland, which the NSHA attributed to physician unavailability over the summer months.
“Once again, another busy weekend is approaching and residents of Shelburne will be forced to travel an hour, by car or by ambulance, when they are hurt or sick,” says Masland. “Shelburne residents are being treated like second-class citizens by this Liberal government. They deserve better emergency health services than this.”
In response to Masland's query, Delorey said that the closures were due to "how doctors choose to run their practices", and that hour-long trips via ambulance were be conducted by an emergency response program that was "the envy of neighboring provinces."
Masland says it’s also obvious now that the problems around physician shortages were not exclusive to the summer months.
“Enough is enough,” says Masland. “It is time for the McNeil Liberals to stop making excuses for the physician shortage in Shelburne and start doing something about it.”
