New health care stories illustrate Liberal failures: Petten

St. John’s, NL (July 25, 2025) – Barry Petten, PC Official Opposition Shadow Minister for Health and MHA for Conception Bay South, says the Liberal government must answer for the ongoing failures in Newfoundland and Labrador’s health-care system, following two heartbreaking stories reported by SaltWire this week.

Petten was responding to the cases of Cassandra Jacobs, 28, who has been left without mental health care since her psychiatrist retired in 2020, and Rebecca Pearce, 60, who died after an ultrasound referral was missed in 2021 and her condition deteriorated.

“These stories are gut-wrenching and speak to a decade of Liberal failure that has left Newfoundland and Labrador with the worst health outcomes in the country,” said Petten. “More than 163,000 residents do not have access to a family doctor. So many others, like Cassandra and Rebecca, are lost in the bureaucracy with devastating consequences.”

Petten said the Liberal government seems more focused on personal financial gain than on addressing the province’s health-care crisis.

Referring to the so-called “transitional” cash benefit approved by Liberal cabinet ministers in April for retiring or departing members, Petten said: “These two cases deserve a full review and an explanation to the families. Yet again, the minister is invisible and silent. If only the Hogan Liberal cabinet was as concerned about health care as it is about secret cash payments to themselves.”

“Now more than ever, it’s time for a new PC government that will end the corruption and work to deliver better health care for all of us.”