Sydney collaborative care clinic opening delayed

Plans to have a collaborative health-care clinic up and running in Sydney this fall have been delayed, but the area could see the creation of two such clinics, instead of just one, in the new year.

"It's still the plan," said Kathy Bell, the director of primary health care with the eastern zone of the Nova Scotia Health Authority. "I think the timeline will move for sure, though."

Since the announcement of the Sydney clinic this spring, there's been a move to create a standardized process for rolling out the collaborative care model across the province, Bell said.

Adding capacity

The health authority has said the collaborative model is meant to bring together a variety of health-care professionals to provide better care and free up doctors to spend more time with patients who need to see them.

Last month, the government announced $3.6 million to hire 22 nurse practitioners and family practice nurses throughout Nova Scotia.

A couple of weeks ago, the health authority launched a call for expressions of interest from physician teams that may want to add those resources to their existing practices.

Bell notes the goal is not to open new clinics.

"It's going to add capacity for more patients to have care providers," she said, "but we're going to be building with the teams that currently exist."

More than one team possible

Depending on the response from doctors, Sydney could have two collaborative teams, Bell said.

"We were originally looking at potentially one nurse practitioner, one family practice nurse, and one community adaptive team member, so that could be a social worker or something like that," she said.

"So now what we're looking at for Sydney may very well be two nurse practitioners, two family practice nurses, and still the community adaptive team members. So therefore that increased the opportunity for more physicians to express their interest in working with us."

Area expanded

She said on Cape Breton the call for expressions of interest was also extended to North Sydney, Port Hawkesbury and Chéticamp — all areas where the need for primary health care is most urgent.

The last day for doctors to submit proposals was Wednesday.

Bell said all the proposals will be reviewed in November. The jobs will then posted, with the goal of having the collaborative teams in place early in the new year.