Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston called the recent death of a 37-year-old woman at an Amherst, NS hospital an “incredibly sad tragedy.”
The prime minister spoke a day after the woman’s husband gave a news conference about his experience that day.
“A 37-year-old mother, wife, community leader, it’s incredibly sad,” Houston said, during an interview with CTV Power Play host Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday. “The impact that she has on the community, on the family of course, but on the entire province, it’s very, very heavy… So, she’s front and center in all of our minds.”
On December 31, 2022, Allison Holthoff waited hours for care at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Center in Amherst, despite showing signs of medical distress while waiting in the emergency department.
Holthoff died at the hospital about 12 hours after arriving.
Houston says the health care system in Nova Scotia, as well as across the country, is under strain and has been in her province for “quite some time.”
“Certainly, I was elected a little over a year ago in a campaign to fix health care and I’m as committed as ever,” he said. “And when we see these kinds of tragedies, it makes us try a little bit…we know we have to try harder. There’s a lot of work to be done, sure. But the sadness of what happened is very great. “
As for the investigation into Holthoff’s death, which was automatically launched, Houston did not confirm whether the results would be shared publicly, but said they will be shared with the family.
Houston added that it’s important to understand what happened and learn those lessons to avoid a similar situation in the future.
“So, the investigation will take place, it’s already started, and then the next steps would be that the results of the investigation would be shared with the family first, and then we’d go from there,” Houston said.
“Obviously, we’re always concerned about people’s privacy and private medical information, so we need to know what happened here. Health professionals want to know that, Nova Scotians want to know that someone is checking, certainly family “You have a right to answers. So we’ll do the research, the results will be shared and discussed with the family, and then we’ll go from there.”
In August 2021, Houston became Nova Scotia’s 30th premier following a campaign that primarily promised to fix the province’s health care system.
Between January 2022 and December 2022, the number of people waiting for a GP increased from approximately 83,000 to approximately 125,000 people.
Houston says that everyone, including her government, shares concerns about that growing list.
“It’s easy to get impatient. I’m an impatient person. I put a lot of pressure on people to be harder and faster,” he said.
“What I would say to people, and I think Nova Scotians are pretty understanding, down-to-earth and common sense, the problems in the health care system, they’ve been growing for decades for sure. , and certainly for the past several years. I was very honest with Nova Scotians during the campaign that it would take time to fix health care, and it would take money and it is taking a lot of money.”
Houston says her government is making significant investments in health care, but reiterates that it will take time to fix the overall system.
“The ‘Need a Family Physician’ statistic is going up, that’s a sure indicator. There are other metrics that I think in Nova Scotia, we’ve taken a lot of action on. The health leadership team is making a number of incremental improvements every week and every one of them will make an improvement for sure. Those are suggestions coming from frontline health workers. We’re lobbying with communities, we’ve been lobbying with healthcare workers…and we’ve been very open.”
According to Houston, his government has been outspoken about what’s going on in the province’s healthcare system. He says now is the time to share more about the “good stuff” that’s happening, too.
“Good things are happening, but there’s a lot of work to be done and when we have a loss like we’ve all experienced, it reminds us how much work needs to be done,” he said.
“But I don’t want Nova Scotians to think that nothing is being done and it’s easy to get impatient, I just ask that they trust that the people running the health care system are just as committed to fixing it as I am.”
Houston says that while thousands of Nova Scotians are waiting for a family doctor, that doesn’t mean they don’t have access to care.
“In fact, everyone on that list has access to virtual care, which is not for everything, but listen. Every day I hear from Nova Scotians who said they had an interaction with the Virtual Care Nova Scotia and it was just what they needed,” Houston said.
“So what we’re talking about is making sure that people can access care and connect to the health care system in the right place. So a lot of people, if they don’t have a family doctor, it’s You may have to go to the ER, it’s probably not the right place for people to connect with the health care system, so I won’t waste a second of my time justifying health system issues. health care here or nationally. I know there’s a lot of work to be done, but at the same time, I also think it’s important to recognize some of the work that’s being done.”
Houston adds that the province’s health professionals are extremely dedicated to caring for Nova Scotians, who work hard to help where they can.
“So what I’m asking Nova Scotians to do is say, ‘Yes. We can have a frank discussion about the challenges. They are in front of us every day.’ But also trust that things are happening, work is being done, people are doing the best they can, and there’s a lot to be done for sure.”