Joan Sinden is among the more than 88,300 Nova Scotians without a family physician.
For her, all the Progressive Conservative government’s healthcare plan is right now, is words.
“Just by putting it down on paper, that this is going to happen, does that mean that it’s actually going to happen?” she says.
Sinden worked at the QEII Health Sciences Center for more than 25 years and says many of the points in the government’s document have a familiar ring to them.
She says the province’s pledge to expand virtual care to walk-in clinics and emergency departments will be no help to her, after being recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
“How do you deal with that when you have no family doctor? You get something wrong with you, and where do you go? she asks.
While Sinden is skeptical, the head of the organization tasked with delivering health care in Nova Scotia is more optimistic.
There are no timelines presented as part of the government’s action plan, but NS Health Interim president and CEO Karen Oldfield says there is a “palpable sense of urgency.”
She says the main priorities for NS Health, among the measures outlined in a 31-page plan, include recruiting and retaining staff, introducing new technologies to help workers on the job, and increasing access to healthcare in rural communities.
Oldfield also believes it is possible to deliver on government’s promise to reduce surgery backlogs by 2500 procedures over 12 months.
“The single biggest challenge for that will be to make sure that we have the teams that are required to get through that list,” says Oldfield.
The action plan proposes a number of ways to attract and keep health-care workers, including paying family doctors more, and creating a retirement plan for full-time physicians.
“And when you think about being one of the few places that offer that, that’s another thing, another tick box for recruitment,” says Doctors Nova Scotia president Dr. Heather Johnson.
She says the proposed measures are encouraging, but she would like to see plans for collaboration.
“We would like to see a primary care action group that brings together all of the stakeholders and people who provide primary care to Nova Scotians,” said Johnson. “And create a vision that will give us something to work towards.”
In a province where ambulances are often lined up at emergency rooms, or driving long distances to get to patients, the union representing paramedics says the plan doesn’t address a pressing problem.
Kevin MacMullin of IUOE Local 272 says too many paramedics are leaving the province, with 23 heading to jobs in other jurisdictions over the past three months alone.
“We’re losing them to other areas, because they can make more money, or better working conditions, but we have to change that.”
Other healthcare unions are also hesitant to throw full support behind the plan.
The NSGEU, which represents more than 32,000 public sector employees, says an important factor for recruitment and retention is missing – compensation.
“This plan makes no specific commitments to how compensation will be improved,” says NSGEU 1st vice-president Sandra Mullen. “Which makes it impossible for us to compete with other jurisdictions across the country for skilled health care workers.”
The head of Nova Scotia’s second largest union, CUPE, echoes that concern.
“Once again, the government has not recognized that health care is delivered by a team by failing to allocate funds for wage adjustments,” writes CUPE Nova Scotia president Nan McFadgen in a news release.