(Photo: NB Legislature)
New Brunswick’s Liberal health critic wants the premier to apologize after the resignation of four Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners.
Rob McKee says this comes in response to comments Blaine Higgs and Horizon Health’s Interim CEO made after a rape victim was turned away from the Fredericton ER.
“Comments being made, lowering staff morale are only going to make the problem worse. We have to acknowledge the workers in the system, doing great work with the resources they have,” he says.
McKee says comments were viewed as disrespectful and a slap in the face.
Meanwhile, Premier Blaine Higgs offered no apology in the legislature on Wednesday.
“I acknowledge the great work that healthcare officials and staffing are doing all over our province. Every day I’m held to account for decisions that I make no matter whether it’s something I have personal knowledge of or if I have second-hand knowledge of. I have to make decisions and be accountable for them,” Higgs says.
“I have four daughters, and to think of any one of them coming to the ER, in a situation where they’ve been raped and looking for help, and to be turned away? It isn’t a matter of experience, it’s a matter of social conscience. How could we turn away a risk factor from our emergency facilities? So I think we all need to hold ourselves to a higher account no matter what we do, to make decisions that are in the best interest of people that need us when they need us the most.”
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