Health Care in Prince Edward Island
Like the rest of Canada, the province of Prince Edward Island also boasts of a strong and caring health care system.
Following information was taken from Wikipedia about Health Care in PEI
The province has a single health administrative region (or district health authority) called Health PEI. Health PEI receives funding for its operations and is regulated by the Department of Health and Wellness. There are eight hospitals in the province.
- Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Charlottetown)
- Prince County Hospital (Summerside)
- Kings County Memorial Hospital (Montague)
- Community Hospital (O’Leary)
- Souris Hospital (Souris)
- Western Hospital (Alberton)
- Hillsborough Hospital (Charlottetown) – the province’s only psychiatric hospital
Prince Edward Island offers programs and services in areas such as acute care, primary care, home care, palliative care, public health, chronic disease prevention, and mental health and addictions, to name a few. The provincial government has opened several family health centres in recent years in various rural and urban communities. A provincial cancer treatment centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital provides support to those dealing with various types of cancer-related illnesses. A family medicine residency program was established in 2009 with the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine as a means to encourage new physicians to work in Prince Edward Island.
Long-term-care services are also available with several programs in place to support seniors wishing to remain independent in their communities. Many medications for seniors are subsidized through a provincial pharmaceutical plan, however, Prince Edward Island remains one of the only provinces lacking a catastrophic drug coverage program for its residents.
The provincial government has several programs for early illness detection, including mammography and pap screening clinics. There are also asthma education and diabetes education programs, as well as prenatal programs, immunization programs and dental health risk prevention programs for children. The government is also attempting to implement a comprehensive integrated Electronic Health Record system.
The provincial government has recently committed to enhancing primary care and home care services and has invested in health care facilities in recent capital budgets; mostly replacements and upgrades to provincial government operated nursing homes and hospitals.
Some specialist services require patients to be referred to clinics and specialists in neighbouring provinces. Specialist operations and treatments are also provided at larger tertiary referral hospitals in neighbouring provinces such as the IWK Health Centre and Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Nova Scotia or the Saint John Regional Hospital, Moncton Hospital, and Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in New Brunswick.
