Rural N.S. Health Crisis Working Group continuing lobby efforts

The Rural Nova Scotia Health Crisis Working Group will be continuing its lobby efforts in the new year for improvements to the health-care system by bringing further awareness to issues directly to the table of provincial and municipal government caucuses in the province.

The working group was formed last February at a meeting in Shelburne by municipal leaders, health-care professionals and concerned citizens from throughout the South Shore and southwestern Nova Scotia as well as the Nova Scotia Health Coalition (NSHC). The group has already organized and staged rallies across the province to bring attention to the situations facing many rural communities in the province, as well as established a Facebook page to share updates on the ongoing health crisis, explore community-based solutions, and advocate for changes that will resolve the health-care crisis in rural Nova Scotia.

The group’s next steps were on the agenda when the working group met in November.

“It was a good meeting,” said working group chairwoman and Shelburne Mayor Karen Mattatall.

“We felt pretty positive and are focused on next steps,” she said, including pushing the information on the Save Our Rural Health Care Facebook page to a wider audience, putting together subcommittees to do some statistical number crunching and preparing information packages to present to the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities (NSFM) rural, town and regional caucuses, as well as the provincial NDP, PC and Liberal caucuses before the spring sitting of the House of Assembly.

“Is the message getting through? Is anybody listening? We had that discussion,” said Mattatall. “That’s why we want to get in front of the caucuses. Then nobody can say they didn’t know.”

Mattatall said if there are people interested in getting involved with the working group and its initiatives they are encouraged to do so.

“It is a concern that affects everybody,” she said. “Lots of people have ideas and the ability to do some of these things so if somebody wants to get involved, they are certainly welcome.”

Guarantee access to family doctors, decrease wait times, ensure access to services locally, provide ER service available 24/7, and to restore local decision making are the five asks of the working group in a petition to the provincial government.