Hisself in the House of Assembly on Tuesday:
Let me be very clear. This government never has and never will inflict retribution on a district. It does not happen.
Jerome! on the same day, in the same place:
Mr. Speaker, as pointed out by the MHA for The Straits & White Bay North, there is quite extensive medical personnel in St. Anthony; four anaesthetists in St. Anthony for a population of 14,000 people on the Northern Peninsula; four general surgeons, Mr. Speaker, more than in Grand Falls-Windsor or in Gander.
Mr. Speaker, besides all of that we have put over $12 million in capital equipment in this hospital in the last number of years. There is a hospital there to serve the needs of the people. I would suggest to the members opposite that they should concentrate on that because when you look at the numbers of doctors there, it certainly causes concern.
Given that Jerome!’s information on how many doctors of what type are where in the province is highly suspect, Jerome either didn’t get the memo about retribution and threats or Hisself is no longer in charge.
The two comments can’t live in the same space.
-srbp-
4 comments:
Anasthetists in St. Anthony = 4
Anasthetists in Goose Bay = 1
General Surgeons in St. Anthony = 4
General Surgeons in Goose Bay = 1
Why would it it be retribution if resources are redistributed to better serve the entire population that LG Health serves?
Four things (at least) arise from your comments:
1. Where did you get your information on number of docs in what places?
2. Jerome! referred specifically in the quote not to Goose Bay but to Grand Falls and Gander.
Why did you pick Goose Bay?
3. Since Curtis Memorial has been historically a major centre to take patients from southern Labrador, Northeastern Quebec and Northern newfoundland, are you proposing to close Curtis and other hospitals and centralise services in one or two centres?
4. What other health centres and small hospitals sites would be on your acceptable closure list:
- Stephenville?
- Labrador West?
Surely you'd agree that this plan should be made public if it is government's intention.
Answers
1. St. Anthony numbers came from your post. Numbers in Goose Bay came from a phone to a friend who's a nurse in Goose Bay.
2. It is under the same board, serves a comparable number of people and, I had a friend who I could call and ask about how many doctors were working there.
3. No, Curtis needs to continue to serve the people of the region. The question is: Are the other hospitals under LG Health understaffed,or is St. Anthony overstaffed or is it both or is it none of the above.
4. Who said anything about closing hospitals.
Just checking:
1. I said Jerome needed to check his stats. I stand by the statement. To the best of my knowledge he numbers are not as stark as he presented them and not exactly as you gave them. (See 3 below for more)
2. Jerome didn't talk about the same board. Since you did, I will make this fairly obvious point: doctors move around within board as and across board lines now to fill vacancies.
In Jerome's case, I take his words and the context to be an implicit threat. Given that it is at odd with the facts both on numbers AND on the fact doctors move temporarily now to provide service, I think it's pretty clear what his message was.
3 and 4. I didn't think that's what you meant but I just wanted to take what I saw as the implication of his comment and yours out to some logical point. Maybe I should have put a smiley on it ;-) to make it plain I wasn't doing anything other than engaging in a bit of a chat.
Just so that my point is clear, the real issue is this: the air amb in St. Anthony serves 500K along with the one in St. John's. When it moves to Goose it will serve exactly the same population. Shifting it from one town inside LGRH to another is not the same thing as moving doctors or nurses or lab techs around.
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