Set up with private health facility just what province needs

Reader's Forum - To the Editor:

I read your article Group Protests Use Of Private Health Facilities (Weekly News, May 9) and thought there are many individuals who don't know the health system, because they are not health professionals.

I work in the operating room as a registered nurse. I have seen it all, and Scotia Surgery Inc. in Dartmouth is just what the system needs.

I work with many of the orthopedic physicians, and with minor procedures going to the Scotia location, it frees up the major surgeries.

I work at the QEII New Infirmary (the largest trauma centre east of Montreal), I know freeing up the waitlist with this arrangement with Scotia is well worth it.

It will not compromise nurses jobs. There are not enough of us to lose our jobs.

The problem isn't privatization, the problem is the shortage of nurses. It will get worse before it gets better.

I wrote a document before the new collective agreement was ratified that said in the end, the nurses of Nova Scotia will pay for the shortages and we will be the bottom feeders of wages.

We, as a province, will never compete with other provinces because this legislature and minority government doesn't get it.

In the end, I feel the people of Nova Scotia are the ones who will suffer. Where is Danny Williams when you need him?

The nurses of Newfoundland will get what they're looking for and well, Nova Scotia will lose our workforce due to our high expenditures, taxes and cost of living.

People like Ms. Jessome and Mr. d'Entremont don't know healthcare because they are not nurses.

Paolo Amati Registered Nurse