Lack of Doctors in Dartmouth - Question Period
MS. CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : My question is for the Minister of Health and Wellness. Many people in Dartmouth are worried about the future of health care in their community. Before the new year, four local family practitioners are scheduled to retire in the Dartmouth area. Their absence will leave approximately 10,000 residents of my constituency and of others in this House without a primary care provider.
Many residents of Dartmouth are senior citizens with complex health care needs. They cannot use a walk-in clinic, and they cannot wait years for a new doctor to be recruited. Dartmouth also has a substantial proportion of low-income residents, another population with high medical needs.
Would the Minister of Health and Wellness agree that this situation is cause for alarm?
HON. RANDY DELOREY « » : I thank the member for the question. As the member notes, her community having concerns with access to primary care, that would be the case, as I have said before, with people from across the province and communities across the province, whether it's in Cape Breton, in Dartmouth, in the HRM area, or down on the South Shore and points in between.
That's why we have committed to increasing the resources, the investments, to recruitment of primary care professionals to support our communities and provide those care services to the people of Nova Scotia to ensure they have the primary health care that they need and deserve.
MS. CHENDER « » : I'll start by saying that it has been acknowledged by Doctors Nova Scotia and others that Dartmouth may be in the most critical situation around family physicians at this moment. I would ask the minister just to focus on Dartmouth specifically if we could for a moment.
The 10,000 people I referred to are only the latest to join the ranks of those waiting for a family doctor. Already facing a doctor shortage, a wave of retirements is hitting the Dartmouth community: 33 of our 71 primary care physicians will retire within five years, leaving almost half of over 100,000 people in the catchment area of the Dartmouth General Hospital without a family physician.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Wellness, when will people in Dartmouth see new doctors?
MR. DELOREY « » : As the member would know, part of the recruitment process does focus on working with physicians for those physicians to have the flexibility to choose where they practise when they come to Nova Scotia. So we're not in a position to explicitly state when the individuals will choose. We can't provide that direction. That process was attempted by the NSHA, to provide direction and require physicians to practise in a particular location. That has been deemed not the appropriate process.
We continue to have recruiters through the NSHA on the ground working to attract physicians to sign contracts, to provide services to Nova Scotians in Dartmouth, in Digby, in Cape Breton, and all points in between, all across the province. They continue to work with physicians, nurse practitioners, and other health care professionals.
Published by Order of the Legislature by Hansard Reporting Services and printed by the Queen's Printer.
Available on INTERNET at http://nslegislature.ca/index.php/proceedings/hansard/