Access to health care dominated Wednesday’s debate in the P.E.I. Legislature, with concerns raised over the reopening of the intensive-care unit at Summerside’s hospital and ambulance wait times in rural areas.
The ICU at Prince County Hospital has been operating as a scaled-back progressive-care unit for nearly two years.
However, the province announced earlier this month that it would have enough internal medicine doctors at PCH to provide full critical care by July.
Opposition health critic Gord McNeilly raised concerns in the legislature about whether there are enough nurses to keep the unit open.
“You admitted yourself that we’re facing a shortage of critical-care nurses in the province,” McNeilly said in a question directed at P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane.
“How are you planning to reopen the ICU at PCH this July when there’s no indication you’ve actually solved the staffing crisis that forced it to close in the first …