The province’s Minister of Health says he supports moves by healthcare professionals to better their work-life balance, despite the negative impacts on some healthcare facilities.

During Eastern Health’s AGM yesterday, interim CEO Ken Baird responded to concerns around unprecedented pressures on local emergency rooms.

He says they’re seeing more and more staff making choices to accommodate their work-life balance, something which he calls a “completely new phenomenon” that is leading to backlogs and delays at emergency departments.

In response to Baird’s comments, Minister Tom Osborne says that decades ago physicians would work upwards of 90 hours a week, which came at a cost to families.

He says they don’t expect physicians to work that today, and the movement for a better work-life balance is not unique to this province.

He says it is something that physicians deserve and is something that government supports. He circles back to the need for more physicians to ensure that everyone has access to a family doctor.