Nova Scotia MLA Alfie MacLeod was recently ejected from the house of assembly after a heated exchange with the provincial health minister over a shortage of doctors. MacLeod contended the issue is crippling Cape Breton, where he lives, and affecting the well-being of the entire province.
Before being tossed from question period, MacLeod was grilling the health minister about the government’s response to the doctor shortage on Cape Breton. The final straw in the heated debate came when Health Minister Leo Glavine said that “three to four per cent of Nova Scotians never ever look for a doctor.”
It was a statement MacLeod, a Progressive Conservative member of the legislative assembly, could not accept at face value. “I would like to remind the minister of health he’s the minister of health for Nova Scotia, not for Disneyland,” MacLeod said.
Glavine also stated that 10 new doctors have been recruited for the Cape Breton area and will be in place by this September. MacLeod, however, said that in the meantime more physicians are leaving the island for greener practices elsewhere.
The Sydney River-Mira-Louisbourg MLA pointed to a walk-in clinic opened in Sydney earlier this year by the Nova Scotia Health Authority. Originally staffed with nine physicians, that number is now down to two, forcing many residents to seek healthcare services from the local emergency department.
According to Doctors Nova Scotia, the province needs 112 more family physicians over the next 10 years, as well as an increase in the number of full-time internal medicine specialists and general surgeons. (These figures are based on 2010 data, which is expected to be updated.)
In the heated exchange with MacLeod, who publicly admitted he was embarrassed to be tossed from the legislature, the health minister also promised another 10 physicians will be recruited for Cape Breton, but MacLeod says it could be as long as two years before any new doctors are able to accept patients.
The best way to resolve the shortage of physicians, MacLeod told reporters, is for the department of health to meet with doctors and hear first-hand about the nature of the problem, proposed solutions, and resources required.
Glavine, who has said that the ratio of patients to family physicians in Cape Breton is about 1,200 to one, disagreed. “We need to take it community by community, hot spot by hot spot, and deal with it, then make sure we have the global picture while working to solve the doctor shortage,” he told the Chronicle Herald.
The health minister also took heat for not living up to commitments to enhance healthcare facilities in the province. The Liberal government’s last three budgets have allocated $146 million for hospital improvements. Less than half this amount has actually been spent, however.
In response, Glavine said that, “Overall, since 2012, we have seen the number of family physicians increase by almost 15% and the number of specialists by almost 17%.”
He added that, “We know from the Canadian Community Health Survey administered by Statistics Canada that about 6% of Nova Scotians who are looking for a family doctor are unable to find one.”
