NDP to introduce legislation requiring monthly reports on Nova Scotia's ERs

Nova Scotia's opposition New Democrats plan to introduce legislation this week that would force the province to report on the state of emergency rooms every month.

"It's an act that would require the government to track and publicly report on a monthly basis the number and percentage of patients to be admitted to emergency rooms who do not have a family doctor," said party leader Gary Burrill.

The NDP plans to bring the proposed Emergency Room Accountability Act forward later this week when MLAs return for the spring session of the legislature.

Burrill said a freedom of information request made by his party showed an alarming increase in people going to emergency rooms who don't have a doctor. The numbers, from 2013 to 2018, show a 112 per cent increase provincewide under the Liberal government.

The highest increase was at the Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville at almost 265 per cent. There were also significant jumps at the Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro and the Dartmouth General Hospital, where increases were recorded of 257 per cent and 217 per cent, respectively.

"This is the level of openness, transparency and scrutiny that is required across the breadth of the crisis in the emergency care system," said Burrill. "The purpose of this act is to make it law in Nova Scotia."

The proposed legislation would include the IWK Health Centre in Halifax and hospitals under the Nova Scotia Health Authority. 

The NDP said there would be no additional cost to monitor the monthly information. The freedom of information request shows the numbers are already being tracked, the party said.

N.S. health minister responds

Nova Scotia Health Minister Randy Delorey said he'll wait to hear exactly what the NDP's legislation entails before making a judgment, but he pointed out the numbers provided through the freedom of information request may not paint the most accurate picture.

"As I understand the data that was brought forward today, it makes reference to visits," Delorey said. "It's important to recognize a visit may be one person who has multiple visits to an emergency department."

He added the data released by the NDP doesn't explain why a patient is in the emergency room. 

"For example, a patient shows up at the hospital in cardiac distress, whether they have a physician, a primary care provider or not, they're supposed to be in the emergency department," Delorey said.

"And so there's nothing in that data set that was released today that gives any consideration to the clinical symptoms or diagnosis or services that were offered."

The Nova Scotia Health Authority said doctor recruitment to help ease the strain on ERs is ongoing.