Health & Healthcare platforms
Here's what the candidates in District 11: Charlottetown - Belvedere, and their parties, are promising.Access to abortion services
NDP
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Fully-fund medical and surgical abortion services, and increase access across the Island, especially in rural areas
Ambulance and emergency wait-times
Liberal
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Make the Premier in charge of healthcare for two years
PC
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Hire more physician assistants and nurse practitioners to provide Emergency Room care
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Make virtual care apps like Maple free
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Set up a task force to create a plan for reducing delays when offloading patients from ambulances
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Hire more care providers and patient advocates to provide waiting room support
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Provide up to $20k more funding to fire departments offering Medical First Responder services
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Add four full-time ambulances
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Provide free tuition for primary and advanced care paramedics who serve in PEI for two years
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Offer recruitment incentives for rural paramedic positions
Green
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Add dedicated staff to ER waiting rooms to do assessments and communicate with patients
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Increase paramedic wages, at least to be in-line with other Maritime provinces
NDP
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Hire physician assistants to ease pressure on regional hospitals
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Provide speical bonus funding for secure staffing at district hospital emergency rooms
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Create a publicly-owned agency to operate extramural emergency medical services
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Provide clear standards for the delivery of ER services and ambulance response times
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Expand Holland College's paramedic training programmes
Chronic pain
PC
Dental care and optometry
Diabetes
Liberal
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Expand funding for diabetes treatment
"Expand funding for diabetes treatment so that Islanders have access to timely and affordable diabetes care" — Healthcare First: An Action Plan for Islanders, 2023-03-22
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PC
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Remove the age requirement on the Diabetes Insulin Pump Program
Green
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Increase diabetes supports and education
Drugs and addiction
Fitness and wellbeing
Gender-affirming care
NDP
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Provide and cover a full range of gender-affirming care services
Health PEI and culture in the system
Green
Long-term care
Liberal
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Make the national long-term care standards mandatory
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Expand nursing care for treating dementia patients in public and private facilities
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Develop new expanded training programmes for long-term care
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Pay community care facilities and nursing care facilities the same for non-health services
PC
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Expand electronic medical records to manors and nursing homes
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Increase the monthly comfort allowance for residents in care
Green
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Offer low-interest loans to private long-term care facilities to make capital improvements
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Transition away from for-profit care by giving government an ownership stake in for-profit homes
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Add new long-term care beds in the public system
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Legislate national standards for long-term care
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Review long-term care and community care home fees
"Islanders have expressed concerns about the rising cost of community care and long-term care, and how much families of seniors in care are expected to pay. There are also concerns about the amount of a senior’s income and assets are required to be given up when they enter care. A Green government would immediately review these fees and regulations to make sure Islanders are not paying more than is necessary." — peigreens.ca backgrounder, 2023-03-17
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NDP
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Prioritise livable wages, stable work, and health and safety for long-term and home-care workers
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Improving living spaces, programming, and staffing for residents with dementia and severe impairment
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Require a standard number of daily hours of care for nursing home and community care residents
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Expand the scope of practice of personal care workers
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Invest in training programmes and incentives to address staffing shortages
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Push back on privatisation
Mental health
Liberal
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Create a 10-year plan for providing accommodations to people living with mental illness without stable housing
Marcia Carroll
Liberal candidate in your district-
Place ministerial responsibility for health under the purview of the Premier for the first two years of its mandate
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Table a new Patients’ Rights Act to give Islanders legal rights when it comes to timely access to healthcare services
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Create a Department for Mental Health and Addictions because Liberals know that mental health is health
Liberal government would introduce systemic changes to the Leadership of Health Delivery on Prince Edward Island.
“There has been a vacuum of leadership and accountability for health care delivery under this government,” said Cameron. “We’ve had two consecutive Ministers of Health that have been nowhere to be seen during a global pandemic and in the midst of a healthcare crisis.”
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PC
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Provide funding for a dedicated resource to provide mental health support to the Autism Society of PEI's members and their families
Green
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Add counselling positions to family clinics and emergency rooms
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Build a new mental health hospital
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Do a full review of the Mental Health Act
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Increase funding to the adult ADHD clinic, and make it permanent
NDP
Natal care
Prescription drugs & pharmacare
Prevention and treatment
Liberal
Green
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Provide free water safety lessons to all primary age students
NDP
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Improve access to programmes that support healthy living and disease prevention
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Provide comprehensive services for people with, or at risk of, HIV, including harm reduction and anonymous HIV testing
Primary care
Liberal
Marcia Carroll
Liberal candidate in your district-
Engage with the PEI Medical Society to undertake health human resource planning to identify physician supply and demand and to guide recruitment and retention planning
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Double scholarships/financial incentives/return in service grants to ensure Island students studying medicine in other provinces will find it attractive to return to PEI to practice
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Expand opportunities for virtual care through Maple and other telemedicine/virtual-type initiatives
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Expand the volume of walk-in clinics on an interim basis by incentivizing physicians to provide these services
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Establish return-in-service agreements for Island students studying at a Canadian University where the PEI government has purchased seats and double the number of medical residency seats, including four new seats for students studying outside of Canada
PC
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Add 16 more Patient Medical Homes by the end of 2024
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Make virtual care apps like Maple free
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Add 100 new full-time positions supporting medical homes
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Create Mobile Primary Care Clinics
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Launch walk-in clinics led by nurse practitioners
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Attach all patients on the Patient Registry to a Medical Home within the next 2 years
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Expand the Charlottetown and Summerside Primary Care Access Clinics, and open new ones in West Prince and Kings County
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Allow people to access telehealth services at libraries and Access PEI locations
Green
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Build a new facility for the Harbourside Medical Clinic in Summerside
NDP
Regional healthcare
Rural healthcare
Senior at-home care
Liberal
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Expand the home-care budget
PC
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Provide $500/year rebates for home-based medical alert systems
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Add 50 new positions over 2 years to provide home care services and support for patients discharged from hospitals
Green
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Expand homecare services
NDP
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Prioritise livable wages, stable work, and health and safety for long-term and home-care workers
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Push back on privatisation
Seniors' health & services
Liberal
PC
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Increase the Seniors Tax Credit to $6,510, and raise the threshold to $36K
Green
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Increase supports for reducing the cost of hearing aids
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Increase resources for the Seniors Navigator
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Increase funding for the Seniors Independence Initiative
NDP
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Create a PEI Retirement Pension Plan, with benefits indexed to inflation
Sexual and reproductive health
Liberal
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Later expand to fertility treatment
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Provide public coverage for prescription contraceptives
"Increase investments in women’s reproductive health starting with public coverage for prescription contraceptives and expansion to fertility treatment funding" — Healthcare First: An Action Plan for Islanders, 2023-03-22
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PC
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Provide access to free contraceptive care
Green
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Provide free access to birth control, including oral contraceptives and intrauterine devices
NDP
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Invest in public education about sexuality, gender, consent, and sexual and reproductive health
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Fully cover contraceptive drugs and devices
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Provide comprehensive services for people with, or at risk of, HIV, including harm reduction and anonymous HIV testing
Speech and hearing
Staffing shortages
Liberal
PC
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Make on-Island tuition free for RCWs, LPNs, and Paramedics who serve in PEI for two years, and provide bursaries for LPNs, RNs, and Paramedics who study off-Island
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Provide free licenses for returning healthcare workers who want to do casual or part-time work
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Guarantee that students studying in healthcare will get full-time positions the day after they graduate
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Legislate recognition of domestic and foreign RCW, LPN, and RN credentials
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Work with post-secondary institutions to help retrain RCWs as LPNs and LPNs as RNs, while keeping them at work
Green
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Start a study to figure out if a medical school is the best way to address staffing shortages
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Cut back on administrative work for health professionals
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Regularly review wages to ensure they're competitive with other provinces
NDP
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Fast-track licensing of foreign-trained health professionals
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Hire physician assistants to ease pressure on regional hospitals
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Create a travel nurse programme
Training more staff
Liberal
PC
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Make on-Island tuition free for RCWs, LPNs, and Paramedics who serve in PEI for two years, and provide bursaries for LPNs, RNs, and Paramedics who study off-Island
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Guarantee that students studying in healthcare will get full-time positions the day after they graduate
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Start an Emergency Medicine Residency Program
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Work with post-secondary institutions to help retrain RCWs as LPNs and LPNs as RNs, while keeping them at work
Green
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Start a study to figure out if a medical school is the best way to address staffing shortages
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Increase UPEI training seats for Nurse Practitioners
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Create a Physician Assistant training programme at UPEI
NDP
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Fully-fund the new medical faculty at UPEI
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Expand Holland College's paramedic training programmes