Health PEI reaching out to psychiatrists who've left province to find out why
2019-12-13 from cbc.ca
Health PEI says it's trying to understand why psychiatrists continue to leave the province, while at the same time developing a short-term plan to provide services with ongoing vacancies in key positions.
Two psychiatrists assigned to Unit 9, the psychiatric unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, have left since November.
Health PEI's CEO Denise Lewis Fleming said one left for personal reasons, and "another did indicate to us that the workload in what he was facing was a concern. And so we are also really concerned about what the psychiatrists are facing here on P.E.I. and their workload."
Lewis Fleming said Health PEI has been reaching out to speak with psychiatrists who have left "in the past couple of years to find out what their concerns are, what can … we be aware of to say 'how do we change things?'"
Workload concerns have long been an issue for Island psychiatrists, as has the number of them working on the P.E.I.
The approved, funded complement for the Island is 15 full-time equivalent positions. Preliminary approval to increase that to 20.8 positions has been granted by the province's physician resource planning committee, but funding approval has yet to be provided through the province's treasury board.
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