Nova Scotia Health Authority VP quits
The vice-president of medicine and integrated care has quit her job at the Nova Scotia Health Authority.
Lynne Harrigan’s resignation is effective today, health authority president Janet Knox said in an email to authority employees.
“Dr. Harrigan has been instrumental in putting the foundational pieces in place to support a provincial physician services structure and solid co leadership model, which will serve us well long into the future,” Knox said.
“Under her leadership, we have brought key stakeholders together to develop a robust recruitment strategy, and supported many other areas of the health system that will be catalysts to attracting and keeping doctors in this province, including incentive programs, pathways to practice for foreign physicians, improved flexibility and expanded rural residency programs.”
Knox didn’t provide a reason for Harrigan’s departure. In an email response to The Chronicle Herald, Harrigan said that she would not be speaking to the media.
A health authority spokeswoman said Tuesday that she didn’t know why Harrigan was leaving.
The president of Doctors Nova Scotia, Dr. Tim Holland, was working an emergency department shift and wasn’t able to comment, a spokeswoman said.
Despite incentive programs and increased provincial spending, the number of Nova Scotians without a family doctor is rising. The Department of Health and Wellness said 52,507 people registered with its “need a family practice” program in June. That’s up from 50,507 people in May. Those numbers don’t take into account people without a doctor who haven’t registered and estimates of the total number have approached 100,000.
Family doctors have expressed worry about the looming retirement of many family doctors on top of the current doctor shortage crisis.
Dartmouth is expected to lose 40 per cent of its family doctors in the next four to five years. Of the 110 practising physicians and specialists serving the former South Shore Health District, 51 are 51 years of age or older, according to March 1 figures provided by Doctors Nova Scotia.
The health authority will begin recruitment to replace Harrigan in the coming days and will share information about interim coverage once those details are finalized, Knox said in her email to employees.