(September 15, 2021) – Paul Dinn, PC Opposition Shadow Minister for Health and Community Services and MHA for Topsail-Paradise, commented today on the latest NL Medical Association survey concerning the lack of family doctors in our province.

Dinn says, “The findings of the recent NL Medical Association survey is alarming but not surprising given the many calls I receive daily. The fact that nearly 100,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians do not have access to a family doctor amounts to a crisis in our healthcare system.”

Yesterday, the NL Medical Association released survey results conducted between August 9th – 29th of this year which shows that almost 100,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador are without a family doctor. The NL Medical Association President Dr. Susan MacDonald stated that “Every citizen of Newfoundland and Labrador who wants access to a family physician deserves to have that choice,” and the PC Official wholeheartedly agrees.

“We have been consistently raising this issue and it seems like there isn’t any appetite with this current government to act. Government is reluctant to admit there is a crisis. The lack of family physicians in this province disproportionately affects some of the most vulnerable people in our province. Our healthcare system is deteriorating under the current administration and it looks like it will continually get worse,” says Dinn.

Contacts:

Bradley Russell

Director of Communications and Digital Strategy

(p) 709-729-3668

BradleyRussell@gov.nl.ca

-30-