Doctors for Nova Scotians - QP
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier, and it's about a time that he said no just recently.
Later this year 4,100 people will lose their doctor when the South End Family Practice Clinic closes their doors. Dr. Maria Sampson from the clinic said, "The current state of health care in Nova Scotia and the lack of support for primary care providers has accelerated this closure . . . Despite working with the Nova Scotia physician recruitment team for over a year, they have not secured a replacement physician to take over any of our patients."
How bad is the primary care situation going to get before this government will help Nova Scotians who don't have a doctor?
THE PREMIER « » : Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of things I would say on that. Obviously, we work hard to support doctors and health care providers in this province, including those who are planning on retiring. There's quite a process there.
The only thing we ask in return - we have tried to provide resources to support people, maybe provide a nurse practitioner, maybe provide a family practice nurse - is that they support more Nova Scotians. We'll work with the doctors of this province, and I believe the doctors of this province know that.
What I would say to those Nova Scotians who are on the list needing primary care is we know we have made virtual care available to every single one of them. We know that we are attaching them to clinics. We know the pharmacy clinics are helping. The mobile clinics are working. We are moving forward because health care is demanding that we move forward with new solutions.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, people in this province deserve to have a permanent family health team, but two more doctors at the Spryfield Family Medicine Clinic are also leaving their practice. These doctors say that despite asking for help from this government, their calls for support have gone unanswered - they got a no. Dr. Rowicka said, "We are basically swamped, we are exhausted, we're on the verge of burnout." I'll table that. These two doctors care for 4,000 people, but the government said they would only help them if they take on more patients.
Our Premier is a CPA. Surely he understands that 8,000 people without access to a family doctor is not worth pressuring a few burnt-out doctors to take on a few more patients.
THE PREMIER « » : Mr. Speaker, we're working to support the doctors of this province and the health care professionals of this province. People may have noticed the incentive we offered to health care workers just yesterday to say thank you for working so hard through this process.
We are supporting health care workers in this province in every way we can. No question, there's a lot of work to be done, and no question it's going to require a number of solutions. What won't help is the negativity of the Opposition on all these issues.
We want people to have access to primary care. We're coming up with innovative new solutions to move this province forward. We will support the doctors through that process.
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Adding 8,000 people to the 137,000-person wait-list of people waiting for a family health team is not positivity - it's a problem.
David Wareing is one of the many Nova Scotians who will join that list when his clinic closes at the end of this year. He explains: This clinic has been here for my entire family through our health care needs. The clinic has supported us through the birth of two children and the death of one. The closing of this clinic means that our entire family is now without access to primary care.
Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit to going back to the table with these doctors and doing whatever it takes to keep these clinics open and these 8,000 patients with access to care?
THE PREMIER « » : As a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, I have reached out to those doctors very specifically and offered to do whatever is necessary - as we do, as the team at Health does.
People will retire, and doctors should have a right to retire as well, without being made to feel guilty about it.
What I would say to the member's specific person and the message to him is that because you are on that list does not mean you do not have access to care. We have offered virtual care to everyone on that list - 100 per cent - and 50,000 Nova Scotians have signed up for that. Almost 97,000 Nova Scotians who are on that list have access to a primary care clinic where they can seek medical treatment, in person or virtually: 125 family physicians for 100,000 Nova Scotians, that's what we have in this province. They are supplemented, of course, by urgent treatment centres, expanded pharmacy services, and mobile clinics. There is access to care.