Friday, May 7, 2010

Well Said....

I often hear Islanders whining about PEI's health care system and maybe we all should take a deep breath and thank God we don't live in one of our neighbouring Provinces where you could easily spend 3 hours traveling to see a health care specialist... it’s brave of the Premier to “speak up” and I’m sure he’ll catch some flak from Souris and the Western end of the Island but the way PEI’s health care costs are going we have to start dealing in reality otherwise we'll all be paying out of our pocketbooks...
Ghiz says Islanders "spoiled" with access to health care
PROVINCE HOUSE
BY WAYNE THIBODEAU
The Guardian
Premier Robert Ghiz says Islanders are "spoiled" because they can access health-care services only minutes from their home.
During a debate on the health-care budget Wednesday afternoon, the P.E.I. premier said he was told he may have to go for a test at Prince County Hospital in Summerside. The Charlottetown born and raised premier said initially he was "ticked off" that he would have to make the 45-minute drive to Summerside.
Then Ghiz said he realized how lucky he was that he only had to travel the 45 minutes for a life-saving test when residents of other provinces have to travel hours to reach a hospital.
Ghiz said later he ended up having the test in Charlottetown.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with your comment but would have to add that it would be silly for people from Charlottetown to have to drive to Montague for service or people from Summerside to have to go to Tignish. You need to put the services near the greatest number of people.

Just think of all the gas wasted having 100 people driving from Charlottetown to Montague vs. 1 or 2 going the other way. It might be good for the gas stations but it's bad for the environment and wasteful of peoples monies.

I agree 100% that at some point we have to start making hard economic decisions about health care before it becomes unsustainable.

I just worry that the decisions they make will be more political than economical.

Good to see you back blogging..

J

Anonymous said...

Tim...I do have to agree with you on this one and I am sure that Ghiz may take some flak for it. But really Islanders need to grow up.

More and more Islanders seem to think they should have everything everyone else has but it should be with a 10 minute drive.

I find over the last few years PEI has become more and more like Native Rseravtion where they think they should have everything and the Government should pay for it.

Islanders remind me more and more like the people who used to be protrayed on that CBC Series "North of `60"...everytime the residents of that fictioanl town wanted anything it was THE GOVERNMENT who had to pay for it.

Well Islanders are becoming much more like those people than like the Proud "lets do it orselves Islanders " of years past.

Islanders have become more and more like a big bunch of whiny crybabies and feel everyone else should look after them.

It is refreshing to see a Politician say what Ghiz said but there is much more he needs to say to get Islanders of their asses and start acting like abitious people again.

Dan said...

Wow, I am glad you posted anonymous. It is one thing to think things, and another to say them out loud. We will assume you were targeting a specific vigilant group of Native Rights Activists and not Natives as a whole. My biggest issue is that there is no relevance of that statement to the hospital situation. As a CFA I am assuming that the reserves here are like the ones where I come from and I have never seen one with its own hospital.

As for my opinion on the issue, many Canadians complain about hospitals and lack of access to them, this is not an Island-specific epidemic. When you really sit back and think about it, we are pretty much getting our moneys-worth.

I know I will probably read some comments like "well, look at the outrageous tax rates". I for one (as a rare user of hospital services) support the health care we have access to when we need it. Ironically, the ones who use (and borderline abuse) the system are the ones complaining.

I wonder how Ghiz managed to get his care in Charlottetown in the end though... food for thought....