Health Authority banking on pay hike for doctors to keep ERs open
'We are getting a sense certainly things are going to improve'
The Nova Scotia Health Authority says it's confident recent raises for physicians will decrease the number of emergency department closures across the province.
A report released Thursday revealed emergency departments were closed 60 per cent more often than in the previous fiscal year.
"We're not pleased with the numbers and certainly looking to recruit physicians to those smaller rural facilities," said Tanya Penney, a senior director with the Nova Scotia Health Authority.
Recent closures due to lack of doctors
Penney said nursing shortages have been a significant problem in the past, but the vast majority of the recent closures were because of a lack of doctors.
"We've really worked hard over the last two or three years from a nursing perspective to certainly move the mark on those nursing closures, if you look back probably about four years ago."
The Glace Bay Health Care Facility saw the biggest change in the 2018-19 report compared to the previous year.
Its emergency department was closed for 6,018 hours during the fiscal year. In other words, it was open just 33 per cent of the time.
Penney said part of that was a strategic decision, where staff was moved from Glace Bay to ensure Cape Breton Regional Hospital remained open.
'We certainly had some challenges'
"We certainly had some challenges across the four emergency departments that were all 30 minutes apart from each other."
Other regional hospitals that experienced significant closures include:
- Northside General Hospital (7,376 hours).
- New Waterford Consolidated Hospital (6,856 hours).
- Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital (4,888 hours).
- Eastern Shore Memorial Hospital in Sheet Harbour (3,654.5 hours).
- Fishermen's Memorial Hospital (3,542.5 hours).
- All Saints Springhill Hospital (3,177 hours).
While Penney didn't have exact numbers, she said she expects the report covering the current fiscal year will show similar results.
She said the target in small rural emergency departments is closures under five per cent of the time, but "we are not anywhere near that, as you can imagine."
She said the health authority is doing as much as it can on the recruitment front, but she's banking on results coming from a recent raise for emergency room physicians.
"We are getting a sense certainly things are going to improve," she said.
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