Nova Scotia launches doctors' retirement fund to help recruit, retain physicians

Claudia Chender, leader of the provincial New Democratic Party, said the compensation issue for physicians is complicated by the fact that they probably rank among the top five per cent of Nova Scotians income-wise but they are individual contractors who pay significant amounts of their incomes into office and staffing costs. 

"Nova Scotians have realized over the past number of years how crucial it is to be attached to primary care and physicians have an important role in that," Chender said.

Chender said the doctors have been waiting for the retirement benefit announcement but the plan announced Wednesdy is short on detail.

“I would have liked to hear a lot more details around fiscal protections,” Chender said. “We heard a ballpark figure for Year 1 ($22 million cost to the province) but there are lots of issues around demographics, and the doctors that are coming and the doctors that are leaving and it didn’t feel like that work had been done.

“Notwithstanding all that, we need doctors, we’ve been waiting months to understand what primary care attachment looks like in this province. Regardless of what the answer is, it’s bad. People need doctors. If this feels like a good recruitment effort, it’s probably good for a start but we’d like more details.”

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