Nova Scotia doctor numbers down, pay lowest

Nova Scotia has the highest number of physicians per capita in the country but they also make the least, according to a new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The annual report, released Thursday, showed that in 2016 there was a ratio of 258 physicians per 100,000 citizens in Nova Scotia, slightly down from 261 the previous year but higher than the national average of 230 and higher than in other provinces. In 2012 the Nova Scotia average was 251 and the national average was 215.

In 2016, there were 2,457 physicians working in Nova Scotia, down slightly from 2015 at 2,465. Nova Scotia was the only province reporting a decrease in the number of physicians from 2015 to 2016, albeit very small.

However, the total number of physicians in the province increased 3.8 per cent from 2012 to 2016.

Despite the high number of doctors per capita, about 13 per cent of Nova Scotians report that they are without a family physician.

Walter Feeney, program lead with CIHI’s physician information department, said only about 50 per cent of the physician workforce are family physicians, a number that has remained fairly stable countrywide since the 1970s, while the other half are specialists, such as dermatologists, surgeons, pediatricians and neurologists.

Feeney said the CIHI report is meant to act as a snapshot to help decision-makers see the big picture as regional nuances, doctor workloads and demographic differences all contribute to access to health care.

In the last five years, Feeney said there has been a decrease in the number of family physicians of just over one per cent in the Halifax area.

In the eastern zone, which includes Cape Breton and the Eastern Shore, Feeney said that number hasn’t really changed in the last five years.

Last year, the province of Nova Scotia paid physicians $641 million, an increase of 2.3 per cent over the previous year — a lower growth rate than the national average of 3.4 per cent.

Nova Scotia did, however, have the lowest average gross payment per physician in the country at $262,000 in 2016 — an increase of 1.5 per cent from the previous year.

Over the past five years, the average payment per physician in Nova Scotia has increased by about three per cent, so most of the increase happened last year.

To compare, the national average was $339,000 in 2016, which increased by less than one per cent.