Nova Scotia health-care workers share concerns with premier and health minister

Over the past week, Premier Tim Houston and Health Minister Michelle Thompson have been touring the province speaking with health-care workers to better understand the challenges in the system. In four days they’ve held over a dozen sessions at numerous hospitals and health centres, giving front-line workers a chance to have their say.

“The overriding thing is they feel overwhelmed,” Houston said outside Victoria General in Halifax.

“Their own mental health is suffering, their anxiety level is raising quickly, they just know when they go to work they’re going to be short-staffed, they’re going to be overrun.”

Across health care, staffing shortages have been a constant challenge, something that was highlighted especially by the pandemic, and it’s not just doctors and nurses.

“We have open postings for respiratory technologists, lab techs, physiotherapists, environmental services,” said CUPE Nova Scotia president Nan McFadgen.

“These are all people who are exhausted, and have worked throughout COVID along nursing staff and doctors.”

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But the premier’s cross-province tour is bringing some optimism for those in the industry that there could be improvements coming.

“What we’re hearing from our members is this is a fresh change from our previous government,” said McFadgen. “It’s nice to have a premier that is interested in hearing from health-care workers.”

The sentiment was echoed by Doctors Nova Scotia president Heather Johnson, who herself attended one of the sessions on Wednesday at the South Shore Regional Hospital.

“The energy there was undeniable. The front-line workers were happy to have an ear,” she said.

That session was attended by a variety of hospital staff from front-line nurses, dieticians and doctors to kitchen workers and house-cleaning staff.

“(They) were all in the same room with decision-makers,” said Johnson.

“If you want a well-functioning system, you have to make sure the people not just at the top but all the way through the system feel like they have a share in the decision making.”

2:04 Nurses hold day of action to call attention to staffing shortages

While Johnson attended the session as a doctor, she says no meeting has been scheduled yet with Doctors Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia Nurses Union, CUPE and NSGEU all say they are also still waiting on a scheduled meeting with the provincial government, but many of their members have had a chance to attend the sessions open to front-line workers.

On Wednesday, Houston reiterated his commitment to do whatever he can to address the challenges in the system and make health care better for all Nova Scotians.

“My commitment to the health-care profession is we’ll come out with some short-term action items, some things we can do right away, some medium-term and there’s obviously some long-term things as well.”

The premier said some of those short-term action items could be implemented in the coming weeks, and while he did not elaborate on what specifically those would be, he did say that one of their main focuses will be on recruitment and retention.

“There’s a lot of problems but I am completely undeterred in my determination to solve them.”

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As part of the PC government’s cabinet, a new Office of Health Care Professionals Recruitment was created. Last week the office touted its early success after two anesthetists and a psychiatrist signed job offers to practise in Cape Breton.