The Health Minister says he has requested answers from NL Health Services after a pregnant woman was recently forced to sleep on the floor of the ER at Carbonear General.
Tom Osborne says the situation is not acceptable.
He was responding to questions from Opposition House Leader, Barry Petten in the legislature.
(File Photo)
Petten wanted to know how something like that can be allowed to happen. Osborne says he’s asked NL Health Services what happened there and that the appropriate policies and procedures are in place to ensure something like that doesn’t happen again. “No, it is not acceptable” says Osborne.
Meanwhile, there were continued questions about staffing and the pressures on the Carbonear General Hospital, this time from the MHA for Harbour Main, Helen Conway Ottenheimer, about a constituent, suffering chest pain, who was transferred to the Burin Peninsula for treatment.
“The problem was a lack of internal medicine doctors available in Carbonear to care for the patient…Is a 300 km diversion for emergency care acceptable?” she asked. “No, it’s not acceptable” Minister Osborne responded “we continue to recruit the medical professionals that are needed in this province to ensure that these types of situations do not continue.”