Leo Glavine calls rape kits wait 'absolutely unacceptable'

Health Minister Leo Glavine says the Liberal government is committed to extending specialized services for sexual assault victims to all Nova Scotians. 

Glavine was responding to a CBC News investigation about a Pictou woman who waited three days for a sexual assault test, a case he calls "absolutely unacceptable."

The woman said she couldn't shower during the time it took for a team of specially trained nurses, based in Antigonish, to assess her at the Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow.

"That was really hard to deal with because when something like that happens, you just want to feel clean again," she said.

There are only two regions in the province with specialized teams trained to respond to victims' needs and do the required testing. The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) team in Antigonish serves six hospitals in outlying areas.

The Halifax SANE team responds to all metro hospitals. Both programs are funded by the Department of Health.

Winter weather blamed

The Antigonish Women's Resource Centre runs the SANE program in that region.

Executive director Lucille Harper says the woman who waited three days was an extreme case.

"The only time that we've ever had to defer a response because we do everything we can to respond within an hour and to respond within a maximum of two hours," she said.

“Trying to travel in winter conditions on some of our rural roads can be particularly difficult and that’s what happened in this situation was unfortunately the woman got caught in a bad weather situation.”

Harper says the Antigonish SANE program certainly feels the pressure.

“We really feel that it is absolutely the right response for small communities to be looking for SANE nurses to be doing sexual assault exams. One of the challenges is that we don’t have SANE services that cover the province.”

Sexual violence strategy coming

Glavine says he and Community Services Minister Joanne Bernard are working together on a sexual violence strategy that will, among other things, aim to improve services for victims of sexual violence across the province. 

"This is something we need to get in place and we will get in place during our mandate. Both of us are committed to that and we know that this absolutely needs to have improvement. The current level provincial wide is not adequate and that's why we embarked on a bigger, you know, multi-year sexual violence strategy," said Glavine.

He says the first priority will be the Cape Breton region.

"That's certainly the next area that we've put on our radar to have a full SANE service in place."

In regions where there is no SANE team, sexual assault victims are encouraged to go to hospital emergency departments. 

One big challenge in some areas, says Glavine, is finding nurses who can be trained for the SANE program.

"We can have the plan, we can have the financial resources, but if we don't have the human resources to execute it, then you know we are in a holding pattern."