Wednesday, April 5, 1967

by the present Premier of the province last year, here in this Assembly, that he would urge and fight most aggressively for a system of medical care for all the citizens of the province. This commits the present Minister, I would think, to institut- ing Medicare with the assistance of the federal government at the earliest possible opportunity. I see that he has appointed a Committee on Medicare and I think that he might have been a little more astute in the appointment of his committee than he was. I think this should have been a completely impartial committee in every respect because he is going to have to deal with some very difficult gentlemen. I can assure him of that. He perhaps should remember the situation in Saskatchewan a couple of years ago. The first two names, of course, are civil servants and above reproach in every respect. However the other members of the Commission, although they are quite honourable gentlemen, every one of them, I think, are all persona grata with the Liberal party in the province and I do not think it was an advisable thing for him to constitute such a committee.

Honourable Keir Clark: Two of them, Sir, were named by the Prince Edward Island Medical Association.

L. George Dewar: Two of them. Well I think probably then.. ..

Honourable Keir Clark: All I asked for was nominations from the P.E.I. Medi- cal Association or Society and they sent me two names. I didn’t inquire as to their politics.

Some Member: Are you in favour of Medicare?

L. George Dewar: However, I have always been, in all my doings in medicine during the last twenty years, I have always fostered and tried to improve medical care for the people in the area in which I live. I am, of course, in favour of a similar thing taking place in respect to the people of the province in general. So I would advise the Minister to tread softly, perhaps he carries a big stick behind his back, I don't know, but he had better tread softly in this respect.

One other matter that has to do with the provision of medical care is the matter of hospital facilities in the province. I must express my appreciation to the Minister for tabling a long awaited document this afternoon with respect to hospth and related facilities in Prince Edward Island. Now I think the Minister is going to have to take some action in this regard, especially in the area in which he himself lives and in West Prince County. (Applause) I didn’t have time to peruse this docu- ment very carefully but it does treat on the hospital situation in the area in which I live, and of course I have already taken strong objections to some of the conclusions that they arrived at in this report. It infers, of course, that the facilities in the O'Leary area should be adequate. Now I might mention to the Ministers that I went home last weekend and I arrived at the hospital on Saturday morning and I

found that there were patients not only in all the beds in the hospital but on cots and on stretchers on the floor, and even in chairs.

Some Member: Is that the first time you ever saw that?

L. George Dewar: No, it has happened before and I think it is the respon- sibility of the Minister to see that some correction of this unfortunate state of af- fairs takes place. I think, of course, if he follows this report that he won’t get too much inspiration from it in the manner in which it deals with this question. There is considerable detail here and there are some recommendations for expansion. It treats on the matter of medical personnel in the area and suggests that there should be two extra Doctors in the Alberton area, and that the Department of Health should subsidize them. Now this might be a question for the Minister to consider. I might state in that respect that I was involved, in the partnership in which I worked, in the subsidizing of a Doctor in the Alberton area and we found that it didn’t work. Now whether this Minister would like to have any further advice on this question or not I do not know. But it is a rather troublesome question in West Prince, the distribu- tion of medical care, and no doubt the Minister will look into this matter and en- deavour to correct the serious situation with respect to hospital facilities especially in the O’Leary area and the roblems of providing medical care. Because if he goes ahead with provision of comp ete Medicare for all the citizens of the province on the first of July, 1968, he is going to have to find a lot of medical men to provide the

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