Is it good news that the number of Nova Scotians joining the provincial list of people looking for a family doctor is still growing?
That seemed to be the message last week from Kathy Bell, director of primary health care for Eastern zone, Nova Scotia Health Authority.
She told The Chronicle Herald’s Stuart Peddle that it was great to see more people joining the list because they’ve been promoting its use, and having accurate numbers helps them, both with planning and with sharing up-to-date lists with family practices that can accept new patients.
RELATED: List of Nova Scotians seeking family doctor grows
OK, I agree having accurate numbers is important, for the very reasons Bell mentioned. But the bottom line here remains: more Nova Scotians than ever before are explicitly saying they need, but can’t find, a family doctor.
The latest monthly figures from the NSHA showed the overall number of Nova Scotians on the Need a Family Practice registry grew from 56,630 on Sept. 1 to 58,046 on Oct. 1, an increase of 2.5 per cent.
On Jan. 1, the registry contained 41,877 names. The latest numbers reflect the ninth consecutive rise in that total so far this year.
The area of the province reporting the greatest month-to-month percentage increase in the number of folks looking for a family phsyician was Cape Breton County, which went from 3,310 on Sept. 1 to 4,033 on Oct. 1, a rise of 21.8 per cent. Cape Breton’s total on June 1 stood at 1,743.
Queens/Lunenburg had the greatest numerical increase (889) over that same period, going from 4,901 to 5,790, a percentage increase of 18.1 per cent.
There is some good news in the overall numbers. The latest month-over-month rise was 1,416, the smallest increase reported since April 1. That’s also the fourth straight month the pace of increase has slowed.
So, is the NSHA finally close to turning a corner on the family doctor shortage crisis?
We’ll see. But from my vantage point, there are still plenty of storm clouds overhead.
NSHA officials told me last summer — when the list was jumping up by almost 2,500 every month — that their intense recruitment efforts wouldn’t really start being felt by the system until the fall, when a bunch of new doctors would be starting to practise.
It’s possible the slowing rise in doctorless patients reflects that.
But, here’s the thing. I’m also still hearing that many family doctors — feeling unappreciated, overworked, underpaid and, in some cases, harassed by MSI auditors — are as frustrated as ever by what’s been happening in Nova Scotia.
Too many doctors are still planning to retire or relocate, fed up with the status quo, despite government’s efforts to date to improve their pay.
A case in point. Despite numerous doctors complaining about heavy-handed auditing by MSI — something an NSHA executive acknowledged to me was a problem — little to nothing has been done to curb that behaviour, I’m told.
The result is that many family doctors say they feel they can’t bill for certain procedures, even though they’re on the fee code list, because doing so invites an audit that can disrupt a practice, taking up countless unpaid hours to deal with the matter. No doctor wants that.
Meanwhile, we keep getting letters from readers — whose family doctor has informed them that they’re retiring or leaving Nova Scotia — wondering what to do.
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