Save Our Nurse Meeting

Public meeting notesThere was an impressive turnout today in Freeport to discuss what comes next in the battle to keep Karen Snider as our nurse practitioner. It was particularly impressive because everyone is so busy gearing up for the beginning of lobster season…it says something about how important this issue is that several fishermen and crews took the time to come and listen and contribute.

People at the meeting called for an immediate public meeting with the Minister of Health to discuss ways to keep Karen in the community as our NP. Now that Karen is no longer an employee of SWDHA, there is no employer/employee relationship that the minister can say she has to respect. What the minister must decide is this: How to employ Karen, who is already here, in a community that needs a NP; a community that has already said Karen is the person we want. There are several models available for the Minister to select from. All she has to do is act, now that she no longer has to worry about interfering in a relationship between Karen and the SWDHA. The only options not available to her is through the DHA. We will not do business with them. Period.

As well, the meeting endorsed a call from MLA Junior Theriault, to have Blaise McNeil and the Board removed from the District Health Authority. The awful health care situation in Digby County will not get better with these people at the helm. They’ve had years to improve health care here. They have failed.

The strong feeling at the meeting is nobody from the Neck and Islands wants anything to do with the DHA. We have totally lost confidence in the senior management and the Board…especially after their bullying tactics through the “letter of confession” that they demanded Karen sign. Nobody should have to deal with a bully…especially a bully who’s been given control of our health care. So get rid of him, and the board that allows him to be a bully.

It was great to see Karen at the meeting. She had quite rightly kept out of it while there was still a chance of resolving this issue with the DHA. Now the DHA has made that impossible. The unfortunate thing is that Karen has already received some job offers, and is sending in her resume. She wants to stay here. It is her home. Maybe the minister of health will consider how bad her department is going to look when a highly regarded health practitioner is scooped by another province, eager to recruit a prized NP. The minister should act very rapidly. Thanks for everyone who came out.

Andy