There was a catchy tune riding the charts in the late 1980’s called “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

This Bobby McFerrin number essentially talked about ignoring life’s problems and surrounding yourself with good karma. Health PEI should adopt it as its theme song.

There are some very serious problems in the health care system in this province.

This agency, whose prime function essentially seems to be protecting a minister who is in way over her head, seems to be doing little to solve them.

To anybody who tries to suggest the scope of the problems, whether they be opposition politicians, people within the health system or the media, the response essentially is “don’t worry, it’s all going to work out because we have a magic formula called a model of care.”

The recent early closures at the Kings County Memorial Hospital emergency room are the latest examples in a growing list of bureaucratic missteps. The problem on both occasions was the same-- a shortage of nurses.

That's the same reason given when the emergency room was downgraded from 24 hours to 10 p.m.

There is only one way you can fix a nursing shortage and that is hire more nurses. Despite the fact there is a nursing shortage in Montague and many other areas across the province, I personally know two recent graduates of the UPEI School of Nursing who were forced to leave the province because they couldn’t get full time jobs. This is shameful and unacceptable.

Health PEI continues to cling to the mistaken belief the “model of care” will solve everything since it is a holistic approach to health care and promotes health professionals sometimes performing tasks outside their traditional job description.

Health Minister Carolyn Bertram indicated in the legislature the model of care is being implemented at Kings County Memorial yet it hasn’t solved the problem.

That should come as no surprise. Let’s use the analogy of the family vehicle to look at the problem another way.

If your car won’t go and the mechanic says the starter is gone, what happens if you replace the brake pads?

The answer, of course, is the car still won’t start because the brakes weren’t the problem-- the starter is gone. It won’t work until you put in a new starter.

Everybody knows what the problem is at Kings County Memorial. Long term, there are only two possible outcomes to the emergency room situation. More nurses will be hired, or it will be shut down. There are no other options despite what the spin doctors at Health PEI might say.

So far, all they seems prepared to do is monitor the situation and try to give Kings County residents more notice of a shutdown. That is not a solution.

It is looking more and more like the long range plan is the total elimination of emergency room care east of Charlottetown.

If the emergency room starts to be closed more than it is open, people will bypass it and head to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Health PEI could quietly phase out the service.