Nova Scotia Health Authority has no timelines to address family doctor shortage

There are no timelines in place for when Nova Scotia will fill the family doctor gap.

Speaking to a legislative committee on Wednesday, officials from the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) and department of health could not say when the transition to team-based family practices will happen. An official also couldn’t say how long patients without a family doctor will have to sit on the waiting list.

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The team-based model — called collaborative care — has been widely promoted by the province and the health authority as the solution for the thousands of Nova Scotians who don’t have access to a family doctor.

According to the government’s website, the teams “offer a more timely and holistic approach to care.”

“Where are those timelines?” asked NDP MLA Dave Wilson. “Is there a timeline, a hard set timeline when we’re going to see the first … new collaborative community clinic?”

“I can’t give you the timeline,” health department deputy minister Denise Perret said in response. “That is up there in job one of the type of measures we need to put into place.”

The Liberals campaigned on a promise to have a “doctor for every Nova Scotian” during the 2013 election campaign.

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According to the health department, eight collaborative care clinics are already open across the province, and 42 are in development. A total of 78 clinics are needed in Nova Scotia, Perret told the committee.

The shift towards team-based family practices in Nova Scotia was underway under the previous NDP government, but since the Liberals came to power the health authority couldn’t say whether any new collaborative care clinics have opened. The NSHA said since it started operating in April 2015, there have been no new clinics.

Perret said a “tremendous” amount of work has gone in to the planning for the clinics and that information and data that’s needed is being put into place.

25,210 Nova Scotians waiting for a family doctor: health authority

The NSHA says as of last week 25,210 residents are on a waiting list for a family doctor.

Plans for where to put clinics and staff are being based on the number of people on that list and where they live, health authority CEO Janet Knox told reporters after the committee. However, she said she couldn’t say how long people will wait on the list or how quickly new physicians will be recruited.

“Our goal is to have access for care for every Nova Scotian as quick as we can,” Knox said.

READ MORE: Nova Scotia doctor calls family doctor shortage a ‘crisis’

The number of Nova Scotians without a doctor could also be much higher, officials said. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information roughly 10 per cent of Nova Scotians don’t have access to a family doctor — that’s about 95,000 people. The number is based on information from Statistics Canada in 2014.

22 new nurses coming this spring

The health authority says access to primary care will be boosted this spring when the province hires 22 nurses to work in family practices, an addition that was announced last fall. Knox said the new nurses will put the province in a “very good position, very soon.”

The 22 nurses will go to Halifax, Cape Breton, Pictou County, Truro, Windsor, Digby and Shelburne.

But Progressive Conservative MLA Tim Houston decried what he calls a slow pace of change.

“It’s not working for Nova Scotians, people need access to doctors,” he said. “That’s what they believed they were going to get under this government and we’ve seen nothing on that in almost four years.”

The health authority says people who don’t have a family doctor should go to a walk-in clinic, community clinic, or a hospital emergency room.