NDP must move to restore confidence

May 30 2012

SYDNEY, NS – The Auditor General’s scathing report on infection control practices at the Cape Breton District Health Authority boils down to a lack of oversight by the Health Department according to Public Accounts Committee member Chuck Porter.

“Patients expect medical equipment to be sterilized when they go for a procedure,” said Porter. “The NDP’s priorities are in question if a process such as this is allowed to fail so spectacularly.”

The report examined practices at CBDHA and Capital Health. There are seven other DHAs in the province. The report indicated that “the lack of provincial monitoring of infection rates means each district is left largely unaware of what may be happening elsewhere in the province” and "an outbreak could spread across multiple districts before it is identified".  

“The Minister of Health has failed to ensure compliance with important public safety practices such as equipment sterilization,” said the Hants West PC MLA. “To learn that patients were exposed to unsterilized equipment shakes confidence in the government's oversight.”

Porter says the NDP have done little in the past three years to take basic steps identified by the Auditor General to assure the health and safety of patients. He says handwashing is one thing, but equipment sterilization is the problem identified by the Auditor General. The government must now prove to patients that the procedures they undergo are safe, he says.

“These are important diagnostic procedures. The NDP government must be seen to take strong action to restore confidence in the safety of these procedures,” added Porter.