HALIFAX – Pat Carew is one of thousands of Halifax residents who will now have to find a new family doctor.
He just found out the clinic he goes to, Lacewood Medical Center, is closing in three months.
Dr. Michael Power, the owner of Lacewood Medical Center, said deciding to close the clinic was a hard decision but one he had to make.
“I have been running (the clinic) at a loss for more than one year and am no longer able to maintain it,” he explained.
Power said he started losing money on the clinic ever since four of his physicians left, adding most now work in other provinces.
“We’re left with three family physicians looking after 20,ooo patients attached to our clinic,” said Power.
The head of the clinic said he’s been unable to recruit new physicians, and he believes a big part of the problem is compensation.
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“Nova Scotia is one of the worst paying provinces in the country,” he said.
Power said the clinic will close on March 28, and four days later, he plans to open a new practice in Ontario.
He believes the clinic’s other two physicians are also considering leaving the province.
Kevin Chapman, the director of health policy and promotion for Doctors Nova Scotia, calls this latest closure “troubling.”
“We absolutely believe, as the College of Physicians supports, that every Nova Scotian should have a family physicians,” said Chapman.
According to Chapman, Doctors Nova Scotia is working along with the province’s health department to make that happen.
He referred to the undertaking of short-term solutions, like improving compensation and incentive payments, to more long-term measures, like opening up a new family residency program in Yarmouth, which he said will train family physicians starting next year.
“Don’t give up hope. Everybody is working really hard to try and make sure that there are enough family physicians to go around, and that we don’t burn them out and they end up retiring or leaving,” explained Chapman.
Patients at Lacewood Medical Center are being encouraged to call Capital Health at 1-885-444-4415 for a list of family doctors taking on new patients.
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