Concerns From NDP Over Health Care System Capacity

larivee

Members of the NDP are wanting answers from the provincial government on how to address shortages in the healthcare system.

Danielle Larivee is the NDP’s candidate in Lesser Slave Lake, she says the shortages are the result of quote “UCP mismanagement.”

“It was one thing before to once in a while, maybe in the summer when people were on vacation, see services shut down but it’s become normal for us now to not be able to have babies in the North for a while or not be able to get the surgeries we need and for many people to not be able to get a family doctor. It’s time that we talk about reversing some of the changes and building a plan to improve care.”

Some hospitals have seen temporary shut downs of operating rooms and obstetrics services, including in Peace River two weeks ago.

Larivee says there needs to a system that keeps doctors and nurses here in Alberta.

“Before COVID even started, we saw the UCP mount a full on attack on health care workers and the health care system. Doctors are leaving because they tore up the contracts with doctors, impacted how they were funded, and have shown a general disdain and disrespect for doctors. They don’t want to stay. We can graduate more doctors but we want them to stay here and it’s the same for other health care workers.”

We talked to Larivee on the Trending 55 Hot Seat, you can hear that full discussion below.

– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom