Our area, located in the Northern Zone of the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) – which includes East Hants and Cumberland, Colchester and Pictou counties – is in need of more specialist and generalist services in order to meet the needs of an aging and geographically dispersed population.
It has been challenging to provide services in the current environment. There are many patients who do not have access to primary health care and subsequently cannot access much specialist care. I personally have heard from patients who have not registered on the NSHA list to find a family doctor because they think the exercise is pointless.
We’re increasingly unable to maintain services in our Collaborative Emergency Centers (CECs) and this is placing further strain on the Cumberland Health Care Facility.
Providing care in this environment is disheartening for doctors. We don’t want to see our patients waiting for care, getting sicker, and losing their trust in the system. Cumberland is in danger of losing more physicians to other provinces because of these issues, which will make the current situation even worse.
Many are concerned that more decisions seem to be made centrally without engaging the community. Cumberland residents and doctors want to be engaged in finding solutions to the health-care problems facing our community. Whichever party forms the next government in Nova Scotia must work with communities and the dedicated people who work there, as well as the patients that we serve.
Dr. Pippa Moss,
President, Cumberland Medical Staff Association
