Virtual services a ‘Band-Aid solution,’ committee told
HALIFAX — Public-private partnerships are resulting in more Nova Scotians receiving health-care services, a health standing committee heard Tuesday.
But Dr. Colin Audain said services such as Maple are only a “Band-Aid solution.”
“Ideally, what we’d like to see is attachment to primary care providers and that’s not what Maple provides,” Austin told MLAs during the meeting at One Government Place in Halifax.
“But when you look at the number of Nova Scotians that don’t have access to primary care at all, I think it’s a very important service to get access for more patients.”
Susan Leblanc, NDP MLA for Dartmouth North, agreed that Maple gives people more access to health care.
She said despite having a family doctor, she had used the virtual service to deal with a health condition because the first available appointment with her doctor was in three months.
“It’s an important form of accessing your primary care provider but it’s different than filling in the gaps while we wait for everyone to be attached,” Leblanc said.
Leblanc questioned if the provincial government was still prioritizing attaching people to a primary care provider or clinic.
As of April 1, there were 157,264 Nova Scotians on the Need a Family Practice Registry.
Colin Stevenson, chief of system integration at the Health Department, said the focus continues to be on people’s attachment to a primary care provider.
“That can look different for different people,” he said. “Ultimately, you still want people to be able to get access to the right provider and the way that makes the most sense for them.”
But Stevenson said virtual care services like Maple are here to stay. He said there has been a reduction in emergency room visits thanks to services such as virtual care and the Community Pharmacy Primary Care Clinics.
Derek Spinney, vice-president of corporate services and chief financial officer at Nova Scotia Health, said about 400-500 people use Virtual Care N.S. each day. Between 10 and 20 per cent of the time, those people are referred to an in-person appointment for further care.