A new poll suggests most Islanders are giving the Island’s health-care system a passing grade.
The poll, carried out by MQO research, asked 400 P.E.I. residents how satisfied they were with the health-care system on the Island. A clear majority – 58 per cent – said they were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied.
But, satisfaction was not uniform in all regions of the Island. In Prince County, 62 per cent of residents said they were either very or somewhat satisfied, while only 48 per cent in Kings Country said they were similarly satisfied. Fifty-seven per cent of Queens County residents were satisfied.
Based on the poll results, P.E.I. tied with New Brunswick for the highest level of satisfaction at 58 per cent. Nova Scotia, at 43 per cent had the lowest level of satisfaction, while residents of Newfoundland and Labrador, at 50 per cent, were evenly split.
While overall support for the health-care system was high in Prince County, the area had the lowest level of satisfaction with access to a family doctor (58 per cent) and access to a specialist (44 per cent). Queens County scored lowest in satisfaction with access to long-term care at 46 per cent
The poll was conducted by telephone from July 13-29 with 400 randomly selected Islanders who were distributed between the three counties. The margin of error for the total sample was +/- 4.9 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
At a glance
The MQO research poll also explored levels of satisfaction with other levels of access to care on P.E.I. The poll found that:
72 per cent are satisfied with access to home care
63 per cent are satisfied with access to a family doctor
59 per cent are satisfied with access to an emergency room
55 per cent are satisfied with access to long-term care
49 per cent are satisfied with access to a specialist
