Province boosts funding for Islanders with no insurance to get sleep apnea gear

Delaney Kelly · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 16, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Some low-income Islanders volition beryllium sleeping easier acknowledgment to the provincial authorities giving Lung Association of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island $50,000 to upgrade their instrumentality and grow a refurbishment program.

The task is aimed astatine giving Islanders with slumber apnea oregon chronic obstructive pulmonary illness — but nary wellness insurance — the specialized mechanical instrumentality they request to beryllium get a steadfast magnitude of sleep.  

Julia Hartley, the P.E.I. director of operations for LungNSPEI, estimated that much than 3,000 radical connected P.E.I. don't person security to screen the outgo of their treatment. 

"We person had our slumber apnea programme for a fig of years, but we were truly struggling with a immense influx of radical who needed machines, and we weren't truly capable to conscionable that demand," Hartley said.

Sleep apnea is simply a sleeping upset that interrupts a person's breathing portion they are sleeping, due to the fact that insubstantial astatine the backmost of the pharynx relaxes and blocks the windpipe.   

"You person abbreviated pauses successful your breathing erstwhile you sleep," Hartley said. "These pauses — they're called apneas — can past from…10 to 30 seconds oregon perchance longer. People with slumber apnea tin halt breathing hundreds oregon dozens of times a night."

The main attraction for obstructive slumber apnea and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are bedside machines with an attached hose and disguise that present a personalized magnitude of aerial to support a patient's airways open. The 2 types usage continuous affirmative airway unit (CPAP) and bilevel positive airway unit (BPAP). 

"These machines tin outgo betwixt $2,000 and $5,000 depending connected the benignant of instrumentality that's required, and times are tough," Hartley said

"There's much Islanders successful request and this is an disbursal that's conscionable retired of their reach." 

Long hold database for a machine

Lung NSPEI has a refurbishment programme successful spot to easiness immoderate of the costs of slumber apnea care, bringing donated utilized machines backmost to beingness for caller patients.

But Hartley said affordable slumber apnea machines are a blistery commodity that near dozens of Islanders connected a hold list, immoderate for much than six months. 

"We're aiming astatine astir 40 to 50 Islanders this twelvemonth who volition person machines from us," she said.

Mark McLane, P.E.I.'s curate of wellness and wellness, said successful a quality merchandise announcing the backing that not getting attraction for slumber apnea tin origin oregon worsen superior wellness conditions specified arsenic hypertension, diabetes, bosom disease, stroke and depression.

"Many patients necessitate instrumentality therapy earlier they tin beryllium discharged from hospital, starring to prolonged infirmary stays and accrued health-care costs," the quality merchandise quoted him arsenic saying. 

"People with untreated slumber apnea... are astatine accrued hazard of centrifugal conveyance crashes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and adjacent aboriginal death," Harley said.

"Thankfully, determination are truly large treatments for slumber apnea."

Lung NSPEI volition beryllium utilizing a societal media run to impulse radical to donate machines that are nary longer being used.  

"We're really going to beryllium doing outreach extracurricular of P.E.I. to transverse Canada.[...] It's benignant of similar an innovative caller mode to summation the donations connected P.E.I.," Hartley said.