Parties keep focus on health, long-term care in Nova Scotia election campaign
Health care remained the most pressing issue on Nova Scotia's campaign trail Thursday, with two of the three major parties highlighting promised improvements for the long-term care sector.
Liberal Leader Iain Rankin visited a long-term care home in Chester, N.S., where he again promised to make the well-being of seniors in care a priority if elected Aug. 17.
The Liberals have previously announced $152.6 million to renovate and replace over 2,000 beds in 24 facilities across the province. In total, the party plans to add 500 additional beds in communities with the greatest demand.
The party is also pledging to reduce to 60 days the average wait times for seniors to get s spot in homes, which is currently around six months.
"For Nova Scotians, who live in long-term care, these are their homes," Rankin said in a statement. "As such, they should be comfortable, efficient, accessible, and modern."
NDP Leader Gary Burrill also discussed long-term care during a stop in Lucasville, just outside Halifax, accusing the Liberals of "eight years of inaction" when it comes to improving the sector.
Burrill said his party would set a minimum standard of 4.1 hours of care a day for each resident, including at least 1.3 hours of nursing care, to ensure consistent, timely care for seniors.
"It's time to pay long-term care workers what they are worth and to create a work environment that allows them to provide the care and support to our seniors," he said in a news release.
During the first televised debate of the campaign on Wednesday, Rankin was forced to defend his party's record on health care. Both Burrill and Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston went after the Liberal leader for failing to deal with a chronic physician shortage in the province.
Houston continued to keep his focus on his party's previously released health plan on Thursday, saying the Tories would open operating rooms on weekends in order to help bring down wait times for procedures such as hip and knee surgeries.
Noting that the Canadian Institute for Health Information benchmark standard for hip and knee surgeries is 182 days, he gave the example of people in Kentville, N.S., needing knee surgeries who have to wait more than 1,000 days.
"We need to do more than just shorten the wait list," Houston said in a news release. "Our goal will be to meet the benchmark standards for wait times, within 18 months of being elected."
He said a Tory government will set up a website to track such things as the number and types of surgeries taking place in a day and how each day's numbers affect the wait list.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What do weight loss drugs mean for a diet industry built on eating less and exercising more?
Recent injected drugs like Wegovy and its predecessor, the diabetes medication Ozempic, are reshaping the health and fitness industries.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.