Doctor, nurses added in Cape Breton practices

SYDNEY — A family doctor will be added to the primary-care practice team in Neils Harbour.

Nova Scotia’s Department of Health and Wellness, which made that announcement Friday, also said a nurse practitioner will be added in New Waterford and a family practice nurse in L’Ardoise.

The additions are among 12 doctors and nurses who will be added to primary-care practice teams throughout the province, including Preston, Shelburne, Indian Brook and Guysborough/Canso, as well as the three Cape Breton areas.

Health and Wellness said the announcements give district health authorities serving those areas a green light to recruit the additional doctors and nurses.

The doctors and nurses are being added to primary-care practice teams that already serve the communities.

Peggy Mahon, a spokeswoman for the Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority, said the family practice nurse will join a nurse practitioner and family doctors working as a health team out of the Dr. W. B. Kingston Memorial Health Centre in L’Ardoise.

“It will help to make that more of a team serving the community,” she said.

Health and Wellness said in a release as many as 10,000 Nova Scotians will have faster and better access to family doctors, nurse practitioners, and family practice nurses as a result.

The Cape Breton District Health Authority has primary-care practice teams in five communities including Cheticamp, New Waterford, Inverness, Glace Bay and Neils Harbour at which health-care providers work collaboratively.