Nova Scotians want to keep all hospitals: poll

The vast majority of Nova Scotians would like the province to keep all its current hospitals open rather than condensing infrastructure to offer enhanced services at more regional centres, according to a new poll by Corporate Research Associates.

The poll, conducted last month and released Wednesday, shows that 75 per cent of Nova Scotia residents said they believe the province would be better served by continuing to keep all current hospitals open.

Twenty-one per cent indicated Nova Scotia would be better served with fewer hospitals, with enhanced services offered by large regional hospitals. Four per cent of respondents said they did not know or did not have an opinion.

The survey data also shows the belief that Nova Scotia would be better served by continuing to keep all current hospitals open is less likely in Halifax than elsewhere in the province.

Don Mills, chairman and CEO of Corporate Research, told The Chronicle Herald he’s not at all surprised with the response.

Mills said the gravity of Nova Scotia’s health infrastructure problem is not fully grasped by most.

Nova Scotia’s auditor general has stated the province cannot afford to keep all 32 hospitals and 10 medical centres running due to urgent and long-term maintenance costs, and experts agree the province needs to look at switching up its health-care delivery model in order to better prepare for the demographic challenges on the horizon.

“The problem that we have is not only do we not have enough money to do the operational side, we actually don’t have enough money to keep the buildings fixed up to stay open,” Mills said.

One commonly cited possible solution, posed by the survey, would be to close some of the hospitals in order to save on maintenance costs and instead invest in expanding regional centres to accommodate more patients, as well as some specialized services that are now only available in a select number of hospitals.

“There are nine urban centres with significant hospitals in Nova Scotia that serve 95 per cent of the population, mostly within 50 kilometres,” Mills said. “In other words we, have 20 hospitals for the other five per cent. We can’t afford to keep it all open, that’s the bottom line.”

But, Mills said, the survey shows the majority of the population does not want to have to give up any personal convenience to solve the issue, making it a tricky one for politicians to navigate.

“People haven’t been given the information about how desperate the problem really is,” he said. “There is not a single politician that wants to raise it because it is an issue they don’t want to touch.

“The sustainability of the system is in jeopardy already. At some point, the reality will hit home and the government of the time will be forced to deal with this issue. They can either wait until it happens or start the plan for it now.”

The poll results are from an independent, quarterly telephone survey of 400 adult Nova Scotians, conducted between Nov. 6 and Nov. 30. The overall results are accurate to within 4.9 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.