Emergency medical services to be cut back on P.E.I.

The emergency department hours of one western P.E.I. hospital will be drastically cut back in the wake of a comprehensive review of health-care services on the Island.

Community Hospital in O'Leary will have its emergency department open only 12 hours a day, starting at 8 a.m., as part of changes coming out of the review released Tuesday afternoon.

The other hospital in West Prince — Western Hospital in Alberton — will remain open 24 hours a day.

The report, by the British Columbia-based consultant Corpus Sanchez, runs more than 100 pages and investigates all aspects of health care, from emergency services to home care to facilities for seniors.

The government said many of the recommendations will take further consultation with health care workers before they can be implemented, but it is planning to move quickly on some initiatives.

For example, starting in 2009-2010, the government will invest an additional $1.5 million in home-care programs. Fees for seniors for emergency ambulance service are being eliminated as part of a move towards completely eliminating emergency ambulance fees.

The government is also looking to decrease the need to recruit more doctors by getting more out of other health-care professionals:

• Expanding the use of nurse practitioners.
• Upgrading training of paramedics.
• Allowing pharmacists and optometrists to have certain prescribing rights.
• Maximizing training of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and resident care workers.

In what may be a contentious move, the government is also dissolving all existing health boards.

"It is essential that there is a board structure that goes beyond advocating for specific facilities to one that is more broadly based in its perspective and scope," said a government news release.

The health boards will be replaced by province-wide Minister's Advisory Council starting Jan. 1. That council will design a new governance model for the province's health-care systems.