THUNDER BAY – Readers Ledger – I’d like to make a commentary about the Province’s decision not to fund two additional nurse practitioners at the Lakehead Nurse Practioner-Led Clinic. Nurse practitioners provide an invaluable service to healthcare in our city. If we had more nurse practitioners serving patients by diagnosing our general medical needs, this would free up more doctors to address the more in depth and specialized health issues. As a result, this would reduce wait times for patients with more complicated issues.
I find it hard to accept this decision our provincial government has imposed on us under the charade of fiscal responsibility, when they subsidize privately operated wind farms and give money to municipalities to spend on wasteful capital projects. I believe the province doesn’t care about what serves its citizens best, but rather how much more tax dollars it can suck out of our wallets to support its financial incompetence.
The bottom line is that we have a severe shortage of both doctors and nurse practitioners in this city, not to mention the shortage of beds in our hospital. Many of these patients will resort to using emergency rooms and walk-in clinics, if they can access them.
Perhaps the challenging candidates running in the next provincial election should take note of this and make a key issue of their platform.
Andy Wolff
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