Backbencher wants to know when more nurse practitioners will be in P.E.I. emergency rooms

A Progressive Conservative MLA wants to know when the P.E.I. government will follow through on its campaign commitment to get more nurse practitioners in Island emergency rooms.

Hilton MacLennan raised the issue during question period on Thursday. 

He said nurse practitioners are one way to help alleviate the pressure felt with the province's ERs — and can help to reduce patient wait times.

During the campaign leading to the April 3 provincial election, the PCs promised to hire more nurse practitioners and physician assistants in emergency rooms — as well as hire advocates to support patients in ER waiting rooms.

"We know that our emergency rooms are a pressure point for access to care," MacLennan said. 

"Are the pieces in place to be able to move quickly on this, getting this in place within the system to improve access to care?" 

MacLennan said integrating the pledge for more nurse practitioners and physician assistants was a campaign promise that resonated with people in his district throughout the campaign, and it's an issue he'd like to see addressed quickly. 

The answers came from Premier Dennis King, who is filling in answering questions about health care for Health Minister Mark McLane, who is recovering from surgery. 

"It was a key commitment in our platform because in talking with those on the frontlines, there are tools in the toolbox that we have in our system that can help alleviate some of the pressure points," King said.

"Adding individuals to help in the ER is one of those."

The premier said the government is working with staff in the health department and officials with Health P.E.I. to discuss how to best integrate nurse practitioners as part of an ER team.

King said the next step will be to have consultations with nurses, nurse practitioners and other health care professionals to get a better sense of how this integration will work. That process is in the initial stages and King didn't say when those consultations will begin.

"We want this initiative to be successful," he said.

"These changes can't happen fast enough, and I hope we will work with urgency to get them implemented as quickly as possible."

A spokesperson for the department said practicing in emergency rooms is within a nurse practitioner's scope of practice and the way they're added to an ER team will be unique to each hospital.