‘We shouldn’t have to wonder’
Doctor shortage hits home for Annapolis Valley patients
Ruby Hyndman breaks into sobs, burying her face in her hands to hide the tears rolling down her cheeks.
Karen Hasler fights to finish her sentence before becoming too overwhelmed to speak.
They don’t know each other, but have something in common: the doctor shortage issue in the Annapolis Valley keeps them both awake at night.
Karen, originally from Hubbards, recently moved back to Nova Scotia with her husband, Mervyn, after spending 10 years in Alberta for work, the desire to be near their children calling them home.
“We came home to be with our girls. All of our girls are here,” says Karen.
They’ve always enjoyed the pace of life in the Annapolis Valley and felt it would be a wonderful place to call home in their retirement years.
Their optimism was short-lived.
Desperate for a doctor
Mervyn was diagnosed with a heart condition before leaving Alberta, where he had regular access to, and frequent check-ups with, his family doctor in Edmonton.
He admits he used to take the quarterly doctor visits for granted at times, even seeing it as a nuisance to have as many appointments as he did. His perspective on that has changed drastically since moving to back to Nova Scotia, where he is now awaiting placement with a family practice through the provincial 811 list.
“It is frustrating. It’s annoying. I still don’t think I’ve really realized the gravity of what’s going on,” says Mervyn.
“You’re put on this list but you don’t have to be on the list to get a family doctor because if a family doctor knows you and wants to take you on, you don’t have to go on the list.”
The couple started searching for a family physician in Nova Scotia before leaving Alberta, but to no avail.
“I was quite worried about him and I wanted to get to see somebody as soon as we could. That’s when we found out (about this) huge backlog of people and that you had to be put on this list,” says Karen.
“Coming from Edmonton, I don’t expect to come here and walk right into something that people have been waiting for a long time. I don’t expect that, but … I’d love to have continuing care.”
‘I get very upset about it’
Mervyn managed to get a referral for a cardiologist after seeing a doctor at the walk-in clinic at Western Kings Memorial Health Centre in Berwick but was disappointed to learn his follow-up appointment with the cardiologist would be scheduled in a year’s time.
Without a family doctor, Mervyn must go to walk-in clinics or the emergency department at Soldier’s Memorial Hospital in Middleton when he has concerns about his chronic heart condition. There are times, he says, it seems his visits are frowned upon because his concerns are ultimately classified as non-urgent.
“If I had of known things were this bad with the health system, we would not have come back when we did. We would have put it off until at least I knew that he was settled,” says Karen.
The uncertainty has left the Haslers worried that their situation will only worsen with time as they wait to be placed with a care provider who can monitor Mervyn’s heart health on a regular basis.
“I get very upset about it,” says Karen, her voice cracking.
Thousands of patients waiting
Data compiled by the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) as of Jan. 1 showed 41,877 Nova Scotians awaiting placement through the provincial Need a Family Practice 811 registry. This figure includes 6,248 residents of Annapolis and Kings counties that had yet to be placed with a family physician at the onset of 2018. The two counties account for the most densely populated area in the health authority’s western zone, with the combined population cited as 78,507 residents in 2011.
See DOCTOR SHORTAGE, A3