Poor provincial healthcare performance demands a review: Jones

Yvonne Jones, Opposition Leader and MHA for the District of Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair, says a national report confirming Newfoundland and Labrador’s poor performance level in many health care services  should be a wake-up call to government that a review is needed to address ongoing gaps and deficiencies  challenging  our health care system in recent years.

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy released a report called the Canada Health Consumer Index 2009. The document reveals that Newfoundland and Labrador’s overall healthcare- system performance ranks “well below the Canadian average”.    Jones questioned the Minister of Health in the House of Assembly about the report’s findings and how government intends to address the shortfalls.  

“While we are not surprised by these findings, given the ongoing crises that have been wrecking havoc with our health care system, it is still discouraging that we rank so low on a Canadian average,” says Jones.  “And it is no consolation that several other provinces also share a low ranking in quality health care.”

Jones points out that one of the most noteworthy findings arising out of the analysis is that there is no relationship between per capita health care spending and healthcare performance. 

“We have a government constantly on the defense by bragging about the amount of dollars they spend in health care. Clearly, this report substantiates what we have been saying that throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve issues.    Otherwise we would have access to better care and less wait times for medical services and procedures.”