MLA calls for Prince County Hospital doctors to be included in P.E.I. critical care committee

An emergency operations committee that's scrutinizing critical care in P.E.I. does not have any representation from the Prince County Hospital, something that's worrying the province's newest MLA, Matt MacFarlane.

The Green politician, who was elected in last month's byelection, said he's heard from physicians frustrated they were not included in a committee first announced at a healthcare meeting in Summerside last month.

"We've spoken to a number of staff at the Prince County Hospital (PCH) and the frustration is real," MacFarlane told CBC News, after raising the issue in the legislature on Wednesday. "They've expressed concerns to government for over a year.

"They've provided potential solutions, in addition to what the concerns are… but they're just not being heard."

Last May, officials downgraded PCH's intensive care unit to a progressive care unit, at the time citing staffing challenges. But Health P.E.I. has said it plans to re-staff and re-open the ICU.

In an email to CBC, the health department said the committee for critical care is meant to address issues at the hospitals in both Charlottetown and Summerside.

Health P.E.I. added the committee is made up of provincial staff — largely Health P.E.I. executives — and follows the same command structure as the province's emergency measures organization.

About 120 people attend a February meeting in Summerside, where a provincial critical care committee was announced as a step towards reopening the community's intensive care unit. (Tony Davis/CBC)

And while the department said there is no PCH frontline doctor assigned to the provincial committee, Health P.E.I. has also created two local committees, one representing each hospital.

The PCH-focused local committee has 11 members, including one physician who is a hospitalist and medical director for the facility.

But MacFarlane said there should be more frontline doctors on those committees, such as 42 doctors who penned a letter in January, who called the situation at PCH an emergency.

"From what I've been told, there (were) two asks to serve on the committee," he said. "Both of those asks when un-responded to."

MacFarlane is P.E.I.'s newest MLA, after he won a byelection held Feb. 7 in the riding of Borden-Kinkora, winning the seat from the governing Progressive Conservatives.

He said those results proved Islanders are unhappy with the government's handling of health care, and he would make advocating for the return of an ICU unit his top priority as MLA.