The focus for the Zeni Maartman campaign was all about the health of Oceanside residents and other Canadians this week.
Federal NDP candidate in the Nanaimo-Alberni riding said her big push this week though involved her party’s platform on health care.
“It’s a huge concern, especially in the Qualicum Beach and Parksville area, as well as in Port Alberni, where so many people are without doctors,” she said. “In Canada, there are about five million people without doctors, and a lot live in our riding and we need to start addressing that.”
Her party would do so, she said, by providing funding for another 1,200 doctors over the next 10 years, along with 6,000 spaces for nurses and nurse practitioners over the next six years.
“We need to look at preventative medicine and we want to see more clinics and more access to health care,” she said. “That’s where nurse practitioners come in.”
Maartman, who was busy opening campaign offices in Port Alberni and Nanaimo this week, said she would also look at other types of health services used by Canadians that are not currently covered by MSP, such as midwives, psychiatric nurses and physiotherapists.