Hi folks. I’m going to be away for awhile. My mother is going to have experimental heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic. I will check in when possible to see if there are any new items to be posted.
Andy
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The residents of Digby Neck, Long and Brier Islands fighting for healthcare
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February 1, 2010
Kathy Cossaboom-Best
Dear Mrs. Cossaboom-Best:
Thank you for your e-mail dated December 9, 2009 to the Honourable
Darrell Dexter and me, in which you expressed support for the nurse
practitioner at Long and Brier Islands. The Premier has asked me to
respond to you on his behalf.
This has not been an easy situation to resolve, as it is an
employer/employee matter, as well as a healthcare issue. Employers and
employees are subject to contracts with negotiated agreements and
representation of employees by their unions.
My department worked with all parties involved to identify any and all
options that would result in a solution to this matter. I asked all
parties to commit to talking, and to negotiate through a process of give
and take. It is unfortunate and disappointing that the employee and
employer have been unable to come to a resolution of this matter. In
light of the failure of negotiations, I must now consider healthcare
services for the people in Long and Brier Islands.
Efforts to recruit a new nurse practitioner for the residents of Long
and Brier Islands have resumed. In the interim, other nurse
practitioners within the district are providing coverage for a minimum
of two days a week, along with community paramedics, who provide 24-hour
coverage, to ensure care for residents continues without interruption.
Dr. K. Buchholz will also be providing some additional services in the
community on an interim basis. We are working with the SWNDHA and are
hopeful that the community can play a positive role in recruitment
efforts.
Improving people’s access to the health care services is a priority
for our government, and we will do what we can to ensure the recruitment
of another full-time nurse practitioner.
I appreciate you writing to me about this matter. Concern for the
health and well-being of all Nova Scotians is foremost in the Department
of Health’s plan to make life better for today’s families, and I
value hearing from Nova Scotians such as you.
Yours truly,
Maureen MacDonald
Minister
c: The Honourable Darrell Dexter, Premier (No Ref. #)
Blaise MacNeil, CEO, South West Nova District Health
Authority
By: Kathy Cossaboom-Best on February 1, 2010
at 4:19 pm
So glad that your mother is doing well Andy. Come home safely. I received a reply from Darrell Dexter through Maureen MacDonald whom he asked to reply for him. I am going to paste here for all to read and put it on Facebook as well. This could be another form letter, I have no idea. If anyone else got the same one. Let me know if that is the case. I will add separately.
By: Kathy Cossaboom-Best on February 1, 2010
at 4:18 pm
Hi Kathy. It’s the same form letter the minister of health is sending to everyone, no matter what they may have said in their personal letters to her.
Andy
By: saveournurse on February 1, 2010
at 5:10 pm
Hello Andy,
Blessings on your dear Mom, and her loved ones.
Come back safely now, and take the helm anew, lest we drift into the waters of complacency and lay down our nets and trawls without the fight democracy is due. That’s what this is all about!
It seems to me that the SWNDHA is about power at all costs over truth, and is resting ‘sweetly in a protective cocoon’ of rigorous bureacracy in the person and arms of the Minister of Health.
That’s been OK for the while- for all of us- but sooner or later they will have to come out for air and succor from the mother/father source which
“created them in his/her image and likeness.”
And then will be the time for the people to stand what people stand for best: THE TRUTH WHICH WE ARE DUE…..Then participatory democracy may once again be restored to these often-at-war- fought-for shores.
Welcome home, Andy, when you arrive. We need your steady hand at the wheel, your calmness, your objectivity, and dogged determination to follow through to the end for what is right.
Where politicians let us down,I know we can count on you…….dan
By: danmills on January 28, 2010
at 11:02 am
Glad to see your Mom is well. She is tuff, for a 90 yr old lady heh?….glad to see you have a bit of good luck for a change…Safe travels home.
By: Heather Prime on January 27, 2010
at 10:20 pm
Just an update. My mother had the surgery at the Mayo clinic on Jan 26th. It went wonderfully well. She was up and walking around the next day.
Thanks for your expressions of concern. Andy
By: saveournurse on January 27, 2010
at 8:44 pm