P.E.I. patient registry numbers rose last month, despite premier's assertion they would fall
CBC
In the last week of February while delivering the state-of-province address to the Rotary Club, Premier Dennis King said the number of Islanders on P.E.I.'s Patient Registry would fall in February.
"About 1,000 Islanders will come off the patient registry this month. This month, February 2024, will be the first month in over a decade where our province has seen more patients come off the registry than went on," King announced to applause during his speech on Feb. 26.
"We have much further to go but that's a good start. It's a sign that while it's taken longer than I or anyone else would have wanted that we're starting to see the benefits of the investments that we've been making."
On March 4, exactly one week after the premier spoke those words, Health P.E.I. posted a patient registry update.
It showed an increase.
There were 36,970 patients on the registry, 299 more than were reported in mid-February, and 969 more than the number posted in January.
When asked for comment, the premier's office responded that Health P.E.I.'s posted numbers are not always up to date.
Health P.E.I. confirmed the manual counting involved in updating the numbers can mean that the posted numbers are not always an accurate reflection of the current situation.
The agency did not provide absolute numbers for how many were on the registry Feb. 1 versus March 1, but it was able to say that 608 Islanders were taken off the registry in February, and 982 were added. That's a net gain of 374.
Health P.E.I. noted it was in the process of assigning a further 400 Islanders to new doctors, and so removing them from the registry. In the meantime, however, a family practice in Summerside with 2,500 patients closed.
Health P.E.I. has not yet said what will happen to those patients and whether they will be added to the registry, but these two known incidents could see the patient registry go up by more than 2,000.
In addition, King's statement that registry numbers had not fallen in the last decade was not accurate.
Health P.E.I. reported a slight decline in numbers in June of last year, and at one point in 2020 it was down more than 20 per cent.
A Brampton lawyer allegedly connected to fugitive Ryan Wedding was granted bail Tuesday morning by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Rankin Inlet hamlet councillors recently passed a motion that has had them avoid drinking alcohol for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, with the goal of setting a positive example for the community.
Jason Jacques says he learned a lot about the importance of choosing his words carefully in his first few months as the interim parliamentary budget officer (PBO).
Durham police say a man is dead after suffering multiple stab wounds in Oshawa Tuesday morning.
An internal review of technical outages that caused significant delays at airports and international land borders this fall has exposed critical flaws with the Canada Border Services Agency's IT services.
Two people are in life-threatening condition after being pulled from a house fire in Scarborough Tuesday morning, according to Toronto Fire Services.
Whenever the door opens at the British Grenadier Bookshop, proprietor Steve Douglas doesn’t know who is going to walk through.
A northeastern Ontario potato farmer says he’s shipping more bags of potatoes to southern Ontario to make up for waning demand.
Halifax’s registry of rental properties is now available to the public online, showing what HRM staff believe are the “bulk” of rentals in the city.
A New Brunswick tenant says he’s being pushed out of his rented bungalow as retribution for complaining about his landlord, but his landlord says she’s the victim of an unfair tenancy tribunal ruling that is preventing her from using the unit to house family.
Snow and freezing rain could affect morning commutes on Tuesday, according to a special weather statement issued by Environment Canada.
Daniel Jolivet, 68, had his first taste of freedom this weekend after spending the last 33 years behind bars.
Peguis First Nation is suing former chief Glenn Hudson over allegations he failed to act in the best interest of the band and financially benefitted from breaches of duty — including claims that he enriched himself, his family and supporters.