Town officials in Middleton, N.S., are speaking out after the volunteer fire department was called to the local hospital to help a patient in cardiac arrest.
In a letter penned by Mayor Sylvester Atkinson to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, Atkinson said the situation was “wrong on so many levels.”
According to the mayor, the call came in at 9 p.m. on June 15. There was no doctor in the hospital at the time and the nearest physician was 30 minutes away in Kentville.
The fire department and paramedics “provided life-saving measures” until the doctor arrived, but “unfortunately, the patient did not survive,” the mayor wrote. “The doctor called time of death when they arrived on the scene.”
“The fact that our fire department had to respond and provide care to help save patients in our hospital is frightening,” wrote Atkinson. “The Province needs to step up and take accountability for this and take action to prevent it in the future.”
The letter, which was posted on social media, concludes with an invitation to meet with the premier or the health minister.
Town councillor Gary Marshall told Global News he found out about the incident on the night it happened and was “kind of surprised” by it.
“I think as Nova Scotians, we deserve better. And I think we can do better,” Marshall said.
“Considering we have the highest percentage of residents without family physicians, the Department of Health has made advances as far as accessing primary care. But our focus right now is on emergency medical care.”
He said their area of the Annapolis Valley has limited access to emergency medical care, and while most fire departments are trained as medical first responders, they’re volunteers.
The town estimates it would need five to seven doctors to restore an around-the-clock emergency department.
In the meantime, Marshall pointed out that when firefighters or EHS are called to respond to such calls, it ties them up from responding to other emergencies in the community.
However, he does not fault the staff at the hospital.
“The staff there, in my opinion, went above and beyond. If they needed to call additional resources, needed assistance beyond their scope, they did the right thing by reaching out to outside services,” he said. “But I guess my question is, how did we get to that point in the first place?”
Health Minister Michelle Thompson told reporters Wednesday in Halifax that she couldn’t comment on the case because of privacy concerns.
She went on to say that her heart went out to the man’s family, who was now “grieving very publicly” because of a letter that “disclosed a very personal and private situation in the media.”
“What I can say is that the people that were involved in that incident and that Nova Scotia Health have looked into it, as we do with all emergency situations,” she said.
“We review it and we make sure that we’ve done exactly what we can that’s best for patient and family. And we learn if there’s opportunities for us and we get stronger as a result of that.”
Thompson acknowledged there is a shortage of physicians, especially in rural communities, but added the problem was not just provincial and existed nationally and “globally.”
When asked about the mayor’s specific request to meet with the province about the case, Thompson would only say that the review is ongoing and that the province is already “involved in the community” by working on health-care worker recruitment.
“I know that a review has happened and we continue to work around recruitment and retention efforts to support the hospital and the patients in that area.”
The premier wasn’t available for an interview Wednesday.
In an email, Nova Scotia Health spokesperson Brendan Elliot said proper protocol was followed at the hospital, noting that “staff performed admirably.”
He said there is always a doctor on call for in-patient care at Soldiers Memorial Hospital. The physician, he added, can “either be on site or nearby” and can provide consultation remotely or in person.
“When additional immediate assistance is required, and a physician is in transit, protocols include calling 911,” he said via email. “The 911 operator will determine next steps and can dispatch first responders, based on the unique circumstances of the call.”
In 2022, the deaths of 37-year-old Allison Holthoff and 67-year-old Charlene Snow — both of whom waited hours to receive emergency care — prompted the province to assign extra physician assistants to emergency rooms.
A letter signed by 39 doctors earlier this year said the changes wouldn’t address the root problem: a lack of bed space for ER patients, leading to overcrowding and hours-long waits for care.
Data hub pilot project
The health minister was speaking to reporters at the Halifax Infirmary on Wednesday at an announcement for a $26.4-million “care co-ordination centre.”
The centre would be a centralized data hub that provides real-time information on wait lists, bed availability, ambulance off-loads and patient transfers, as well as the status of diagnostic tests and procedures.
While the Halifax Infirmary is the site of the pilot project, the goal is to roll out the data hub province-wide over the next two years.
Minister Thompson said the centre would allow health-care workers to “see where capacity is” in the system and transfer patients if necessary.
— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Callum Smith
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