Prince Edward Island - Health Care

Health Care

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)
• Stewart Memorial Hospital (Tyne Valley)
• 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.

Ground ambulance service in Prince Edward Island is provided under contract by Island EMS. Air ambulance service is provided under contract by LifeFlight.

In recent decades, Prince Edward Island's population has shown statistically significant and abnormally high rates of diagnosed rare cancers, particularly in rural areas. Health officials, ecologists and environmental activists point to the use of pesticides for industrial potato farming as a primary contaminant.

Prince Edward Island is the only province in Canada that does not provide abortion services through its hospitals. The last abortion was performed in the province in 1982 prior to the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital which saw the closure of the Roman Catholic-affiliated Charlottetown Hospital and the non-denominational Prince Edward Island Hospital; a condition of the "merger" being that abortions not be performed in the province. In 1988, following the court decision R. v. Morgentaler, the then-opposition Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island tabled a motion demanding that the ban on abortions be upheld at the province's hospitals; the then-governing Prince Edward Island Liberal Party under Premier Joe Ghiz acquiesced and the ban was upheld. The Government of Prince Edward Island will fund abortions for women who travel to another province. Women desiring an abortion in Prince Edward Island must have one physician referral (PEI physician), PEI physicians may not refuse this referral, if they do, patients can file a complaint with the Medical Society. Then women must travel to Halifax, to The Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre. While the procedure at this hospital is funded by the PEI government, travel expenses are not. Women from Prince Edward Island may also travel to the nearest private user-pay, Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where they must pay for the procedure using their own funds.

A local advocacy group titled the Prince Edward Island Reproductive Rights Organization has challenged the current understanding on abortion, and has held two rallies to raise awareness on this issue. Currently the status remains unchanged.