Summerside mayor has 'tense and blunt' meeting with Health P.E.I. CEO over hospital
CBC
The City of Summerside will hold a public town hall on the future of Prince County Hospital next Thursday, Feb. 1, and the mayor is calling on provincial Health Minister Mark McLane and the head of Health P.E.I. to attend.
In a letter to McLane, Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher said the decision to downgrade intensive-care services at the hospital "will jeopardize the health outcomes of the citizens of Summerside, Prince County and the entire province."
He said each day the hospital operates without a fully functioning ICU, the health and lives of his residents are at risk — "a risk that I, as mayor of this city, am not prepared to accept."
In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, Kutcher said he had talked to acting Health P.E.I. CEO Corinne Rowswell the day before.
"It was tense and blunt," he said.
"My messages have been very clear: 'We are looking for a firm commitment — not a "we hope to" or "we have a vision for" or "we support," but... specific language saying, 'We will commit to reopen the Prince County Hospital ICU and return the hospital to its full functioning capacity to ensure safe, quality health-care services are restored here.'"
Kutcher said he did not get that promise during Tuesday's discussion with Rowswell.
Health P.E.I. said this month that a shortage of staff has forced it to further downgrade critical-care services at the Prince County Hospital, now affecting the progressive-care unit, which treats less serious cases than an ICU. That means even more patients will have to be transported 60 kilometres to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown until and unless more doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists can be hired for Summerside.
Kutcher said health officials assured him nine months ago, during a previous town-hall meeting called after ICU services were first downgraded, that restoring the intensive-care unit was a priority.
He said the city was told it would have regular updates on the plan to restore services, but those updates never happened.
In an email late Wednesday, Health P.E.I. said two ICU-level patients have been transferred from Summerside to Charlottetown for treatment since Jan 19. Five out of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's eight ICU beds were filled Wednesday, as were seven out of eight QEH progressive-care unit beds.
A spokesperson said the progressive-care unit at the Prince County Hospital had five out of its eight beds occupied Wednesday.
"The worst case could be reducing to no PCU beds. The current situation is indicating Health P.E.I. will be able to maintain some PCU beds in the PCU unit, for less acute patients still within progressive-care level," the email said.
"The remaining beds will continue to be staffed and filled with PCH patients at different level of care."
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