Continuing the work
Back in the 1920s, people in the Wolfville area decided to build a new hospital for the area. Construction began late in 1929 and the Eastern Kings Memorial Hospital (EKM) was finished in less than a year. It cost more than $110,000 at the time, which would be well over $2 million in today’s currency.
There’s a wonderful 1932 photo outside the hospital of 30some mothers with all the babies born there. Looking at it, you can sense the pride. In 1980, I collected some of the EKM’s history for an anniversary publication. I even got to interview the cook, who turned out really edible meals.
What amazed me was how the community stepped up to pay for the hospital and then its services. Families contributed 10 cents a month, for example. Someone collected those dimes and the bills got paid. This was all well before Medicare was approved in 1959.
Today, medical care is vastly more complicated and costly than it was during the Depression. It’s a very good thing we don’t have to pay. A new federal-provincial agreement means Nova Scotians will benefit from a three-year, $355-million agreement to help increase access to a variety of care. The deal includes primary, mental health and addictions care, support for health-care workers and allows the system to add more cutting-edge technology to offer better, faster services.
Sometimes it’s hard to unpack without cynicism what the politicians have to say about healthcare spending. I just keep in mind that our premier, Tim Houston, committed to fix health care, to spend an additional $430 million and that gave him the 2021 election.
Most Nova Scotians are waiting for improved access to primary care, decreased surgical wait times and a let-up of the pressure on emergency departments. More long-term care beds are rolling out, but much remains to be done if 15 per cent of the province’s population doesn’t have a family doctor.
With hospitals well over capacity across the country, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) president says emergency rooms are standing in for primary care and that the country needs more family doctors.
Nurses and continuing-care assistants (CCAs) have told Houston they’re stressed about going into work each day. No wonder there’s a shortage of these essential health-care workers. Fortunately, there’s a federal law now in place to protect health workers from threats and bullying, but more needs to be done.
The province is widening the scope of practice for a variety of health-care workers, such as pharmacists and paramedics. Physician assistants are also easing into the system and Acadia University is starting up a nursing school. All good, but why can’t young Nova Scotia doctors, who trained in other countries, practise here?
Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of the CMA, says enabling physicians to practise outside their home jurisdictions without additional licensing requirements can alleviate the pressure on providers in rural and remote communities. The association supports virtual care across provincial borders and greater continuity and timeliness of care to be offered. The Atlantic provinces launched a physician registry in early 2023 that allows doctors to practise across this region.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has concluded that physicians lose 18.5 million hours each year while they address unnecessary administrative tasks and that is equivalent to about 55 million patient visits. Dr. Ross has naturally called for a reduction in the administrative burden physicians bear.
Those are some big asks. Unfortunately, the Nova Scotia government’s top 10 ideas from a recent health-care improvement challenge aren’t really gamechanging. Using a text notification system to remind patients of their appointment date, time and location is already happening in the field. Permission to use email for appointment letters is kind of a no-brainer.
“The people who know our health-care system best told us what common sense, low-cost and easy-to-implement improvements we could make, and Nova Scotians chose they felt would have the biggest impact,” Houston said in a news release.
Sure, the suggestions came in from health-care providers and it’s great the province is listening, but keep asking please and expand the scope.
Former Advertiser and Journal reporter, Wendy Elliott lives in Wolfville.