CORNER BROOK, N.L. — Eddie Joyce doesn’t mince words when asked how he feels knowing that the new regional hospital being built in Corner Brook won’t have a PET scanner.
The Independent MHA for Humber-Bay of Islands has long been a strong advocate for the scanner and a radiation unit for the hospital.
He was a Liberal Opposition member in 2014 when then Opposition leader and now former premier Dwight Ball promised the people of the west coast and Labrador that a PET scanner would be located at the facility.
Ball made the pledge as an election promise at a public meeting in Corner Brook in January 2014.
“For Dwight Ball to mislead the people on the west coast and the residents of western Newfoundland and Labrador for health care is shameful,” Joyce said.
Health Minister Dr. John Haggie confirmed to SaltWire Network earlier this week that there would be no PET scanner in the hospital, but rather the space to accommodate one would be there.
“From my time in this department, there’s never been an understanding on my part, or indeed when we went to the (request for proposals) and sent this along to the market, that it would be any different than I’ve described it would be — a foundation and a space there should one turn out to be necessary later. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard any player, as it were, from that part of the world say any different, from a government perspective anyway,” Haggie said.
Joyce disagrees.
“The commitment was made for the PET scanner and the radiation unit. I’ll stand with the people on that,” he said on Thursday.
Up until April 25, 2018, when Ball removed him from cabinet, the PET scanner was a go for Corner Brook, Joyce said.
In fact, Joyce said the commitment wasn’t for just a PET scanner, but to create a space for the equipment and to get either a PET scanner or the most advanced imagery technology available to put in it.
“We used the word PET scanner because that was the best in 2014, 2015, that was the best technology. So, we used the PET scanner and the commitment was to put a space in the hospital for the best available imagery technology that was available when the hospital would have been built,” he said.
With no firm timeline on when the construction would occur at that point, the thinking was that a PET scanner could have become obsolete and replaced with new technology, Joyce said.
“Whatever the best imagery technology was available, that’s what was going to go in the hospital.”
Joyce said Ball reneged on that commitment and it’s now on Premier Andrew Furey to fulfil it.
“The pressure is squarely on his shoulders.”
He said Furey has to take a stand, and cannot say this was before his time or that bureaucrats made the decision.
“Andrew Furey, you are the premier of the province, you have to right this wrong that the former premier, Dwight Ball, made to the people of western Newfoundland,” Joyce said.
Gerald Parsons, co-chair of the Western Regional Hospital Action Committee, said he was surprised by Haggie’s comments.
“He definitely knows that Dwight committed to that, and the whole party committed to it,” he said.
Parsons said he still has the letter Ball sent to the committee in September 2014 that reiterates that commitment.
The whole issue, he said, makes him emotional.
“We’ve always got the short end of the stick.”
Corner Brook Mayor Jim Parsons said it’s clear people feel there is a need for this equipment.
“Obviously, having to travel to St. John’s is a great burden for a lot of families, and in a very difficult time, typically, in their lives.”
He said he understands a PET scanner has a big impact when it comes to a cancer diagnosis and was under the assumption it was a piece of equipment that was coming with the new hospital.
City council has not discussed the issue, but Parsons said he knows other councillors have expressed concern and it’s possible council will decide to take a stand.
“Personally, yes, I’ll be writing a letter and talking to our elected representatives at the provincial level. I hope that this is reconsidered.”
SaltWire Network contacted Furey and Ball for comment. Furey’s office deferred the request to Haggie, saying he is handling questions on the issue. Haggie’s office said there was nothing new to add since the interview on Tuesday.
There was no response from Ball before deadline.
Diane Crocker reports on west coast news.
