P.E.I. physician calls for ‘system-level solutions’ to health-care problems

P.E.I. emergency physician Trevor Jain discusses the state of health care in the province.

A Prince Edward Island physician is calling for “system-level solutions” to health-care problems in the province and across Canada.

Dr. Trevor Jain, who is an emergency physician in Charlottetown, said issues like patient waitlists and overcrowded hospitals can’t be fully solved without a holistic approach.

“We’re focused on the primary care waitlist. We’re also overfocused on ED (emergency department) wait times and overcrowding and we’re painting it as an emergency department issue but it’s a system-level issue that’s going to require system-level solutions,” Jain said in an interview with CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis on Thursday. “Just addressing each of those in silo ways is not going to solve it either.”

Jain said P.E.I.’s health-care system is facing many of the “national pressures” seen across Canada.

“We have a lot of long-term care in our hospitals,” he said. “It’s a systemic issue.”

According to the P.E.I. government’s website, there are currently 33,342 Islanders on the province’s patient registry, which connects people with family doctors and nurse practitioners.

Jain notes increased access to primary care can lighten the load in emergency departments.

“Like every emergency department, we know that patients that have regular access to primary care, their chronic diseases are managed better, they have less visits to the emergency department and they’re healthier,” he said. “But Canadians sometimes don’t have anyplace else to go.”

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