Yukon health minister wishes 'accident' on MLA
'Obviously the minister doesn't wish me well,' NDP member says
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | 3:25 PM CT
CBC News
The Yukon's health minister startled members of the legislature on Tuesday when he said he hopes an opposition MLA "has an accident."
Health and Social Services Minister Glenn Hart made the remark during question period, after NDP MLA Steve Cardiff asked him to address the problem of overcrowded conditions at Whitehorse General Hospital.
The overcrowding has led to several patients being transferred to another community's hospital over the past week.
Cardiff told the legislature that the government should not concentrate too much on providing acute-care hospital beds, and instead do more in prevention and long-term care if it wants to avoid overcrowding.
Cardiff then said the Yukon's current range of health-care services is too narrow, to which Hart replied, "I hope the member opposite has an accident and then tries to figure out where he's going to go."
Speaker Ted Staffen immediately stepped in and suggested Hart rethink his comment.
"I think you used a terminology in your reply to the member that you would probably like to retract," Staffen told Hart.
There was no immediate response from the minister.
Cardiff later said Hart missed his point: that beds at the Whitehorse hospital are being filled with people who actually need home care or other services outside hospital.
"Obviously the minister doesn't wish me well," Cardiff said outside the legislative assembly.
"But I think the other thing is that the minister doesn't understand the difference between a continuum of care and the acute-care mandate that the hospital here in Whitehorse has."
Cardiff added that if he ever does get into an accident, he would "get in the ambulance, be taken to the hospital and I'm going to be treated."
