Peter Bevan-Baker Announces Plan for Making Long-term Investments in Public HealthcareFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2023
Crapaud, PE - Healthcare must be accessible to everyone and it must be responsive to the needs of Islanders. While the PCs and the Liberals are signaling they are prepared to sell healthcare to the highest bidder, the Greens are committed to defending and building up our public healthcare system.
Private healthcare, where profit takes precedence over people, is a road we will not go down.
A Green government will:
Boost funding to provincial pharmacare by $18 million to match the Canadian average per capita investment in pharmacare;
Provide Islanders with comprehensive and timely mental health and addiction services including finally building a new mental health hospital, establishing Psychiatric Urgent Care Clinics (PUCCs) outside of Charlottetown, and increasing the number of guidance counsellors in schools;
Create a Perinatal Mental Health strategy;
Expand homecare services to seniors and other Islanders in need;
Create a withdrawal management (detox) facility in Summerside and expand residential and outpatient treatment options Island-wide.
Improve our Island long-term care system by offering low-interest loans to private long-term care facilities to make capital improvements, seeking an ownership stake in funding agreements to begin the transition away from for-profit care, building more public long-term care beds, and legislating national standards of care;
Create a restorative care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
This announcement complements the plans previously announced for Getting Healthcare Out of Crisis, Valuing Healthcare Workers, and Promoting the Health and Wellness of Islanders.
Quotes:
“Public healthcare has suffered under successive Liberal and PC governments. One of the glaring areas where they have failed is in covering life-saving drugs that improve the health and quality of life of so many Islanders.A Green government would immediately boost funding to provincial pharmacare by $18 million.”
Peter Bevan-Baker, Leader of the Green Party of PEI
“Access to primary care has been a big issue in the South Shore region ever since we lost our doctor several years ago. There has been a huge grassroots community effort to hold on to rural health services, but both Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to match the community’s efforts to properly encourage a doctor to live and practice in the region. A Green government would not interfere with access to public healthcare. We will not rob Islanders, in particular rural Islanders, of access to the primary healthcare they need, when they need it and where they need it.”
Matt MacFarlane, Green Candidate for District 19, Borden-Kinkora
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Jonathan Hamel
Director of Communications
Green Party of PEI
Tel: (902) 916-7816
Email: jonathan.hamel@greenparty.pe.ca
