For several years Nova Scotia’s two opposition parties have been sounding the alarm about the Liberal government’s handling of long-term care when it comes to an aging and unhealthy population. The recent warning by Shannex, one of the province’s largest nursing home operators, that it will stop accepting patients or begin sending them to hospital at the first sign of illness is another example of a health-care system that continues to be under siege.
Shannex said Dec. 3 it’s facing a doctor shortage and there are no longer on-site primary care physicians at a pair of its nursing homes in Colchester County – one in Debert and the other in Truro.
Katherine VanBuskirk, Shannex’s director of communications and community affairs, said rules require nursing home residents to be under the care of a qualified medical practitioner and while the company is working with the Nova Scotia Health Authority to meet this requirement but pointed out it’s becoming harder to get doctors to look after nursing homes. She said the decision was made to stop accepting residents at the two affected facilities.
This is not just a Colchester County issue, problems in long-term care and its impact on acute-care facilities is happening provincewide.
The shortage of doctors is threatening the stability of health care for those requiring long-term care and it’s only going to make the logjam at many hospitals in Nova Scotia even worse. Walk into any ER in this province and there are many seniors, who are too sick to live at home, stuck in hospital beds – sometimes in hallways – because there aren’t enough long-term care beds available or the province has not been efficient at moving them from acute-care to long-term care.
Earlier this year, Cumberland North’s MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin called on the government of Stephen McNeil to cut the red tape and bureaucracy that’s preventing patients from being moved in a timely fashion out of hospitals to nursing homes.
Smith-McCrossin said she was told by the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s continuing care director that it was taking 10 to 12 days to get a patient into a long-term care bed, when one was available. At the time, she suggested the provincial government needed to do a better job of anticipating problems as the population continues to grow older.
Now there’s the added problem of a shortage of physicians to care for long-term care patients.
The former NDP government of Darrell Dexter saw the coming storm and prior to the 2013 election, when the McNeil Liberals were elected, announced a plan to add to the number of long-term beds in the province through the construction of new facilities – including one in Amherst and in the Cumberland South area – something that was quickly abandoned when the new government took over.
This is simply unacceptable and the situation nursing home operators are facing with the doctor shortage only gives Nova Scotians the appearance the present provincial administration, its Health and Wellness Department and the NSHA really have no idea how to fix a perfect storm everyone knew was coming. And, with it’s only going to get worse as the population continues to age and live less than healthy lifestyles.
There is no easy solution as Nova Scotia’s problem is similar to that of other provinces, and as easy as it is to criticize and blame the government for the mess it would be better if all the stakeholders came to the table for an open and frank discussion about health care and potential solutions that doesn’t include throwing more money at the problem and actually makes sure those who need care the most receive it.
