Urgent Government action required to prevent more family physicians from resigning

Liberal Leader Robert Mitchell and Gord McNeilly, MLA for Charlottetown-West Royalty and Opposition Health Critic, are calling on the Government of Prince Edward Island to stop the spin and start listening to the frontline healthcare workers holding the system together after the resignation of yet another family physician.

An open letter published yesterday by family physician Dr. Heather Austin states that she has made the decision to resign her practice in Summerside and move back to Nova Scotia to continue practicing there instead. In explaining what drove her to make this decision, Dr. Austin states that Health PEI “has made [family physicians] feel like we are parasites on the healthcare system” and that “Health PEI has failed miserably when it comes to physician retention… and will continue to drive family physicians away.”

The Official Opposition is urgently calling on the Conservative Government to create a credible plan to stabilize primary care before more physicians walk away.

“It is incredibly frustrating to see yet another family physician leaving Prince Edward Island after feeling unheard and disrespected by this inward-looking Conservatives,” said Mitchell, noting that the public outpouring of comments from Dr. Austin’s patients about her resignation announcement speaks volumes about the care she has provided Islanders since 2011 and her impact on families across the community.

Gord McNeilly, Official Opposition Health Critic, said that Dr. Austin’s letter is clear that she is not retiring, but that she is resigning due to the mismanagement and culture within Health PEI. Any attempt to frame this as something otherwise, he remarked, is misleading to Islanders and unfair to patients. McNeilly noted that this is just one example of many recently of doctors leaving.

“This government is pushing family doctors to the breaking point with paperwork and unrealistic targets instead of giving them the support they need to care for patients,” McNeilly said. “Family physicians are at the heart of delivering timely, continuous, and comprehensive primary health care for Islanders. If the Premier is serious about fixing health care, he needs to sit down and listen to family physicians.”

Premier Lantz and his Conservative government have spent the better part of the last year focused on political self-preservation, internal maneuvering, and protecting their own positions while frontline health-care professionals have been left feeling unheard, unsupported, and increasingly undervalued.

“While pressure on frontline providers continues to grow, Islanders are seeing more resources directed toward Health PEI executives and front offices,” Mitchell said. “Premier Lantz must stop the spin, stop the self-congratulatory advertising, and start listening to frontline professionals. Islanders deserve honesty, accountability, and a credible plan to stabilize primary care before more physicians walk away.”