A doctor is expressing concerns about the lack of services at a hospital in rural Cape Breton, and the impact that may have on the province’s ability to recruit doctors to the area.
“If I were a resident in that area, I would be very concerned,” says Dr. Margaret Fraser. “Their hospital is under threat. Their local health care is under threat.”
Tucked away near the northern tip of Cape Breton, the Buchanan Memorial Community Health Centre is located in one of the most remote areas of Nova Scotia.
With Cape Breton’s largest hospital located more than two hours away, in Sydney, Dr. Margaret Fraser says services at the small facility in Neil’s Harbour are crucial.
But Fraser says the Nova Scotia Health Authority recently cut the hospital’s laboratory technician, and X-rays will no longer be available in evenings and on weekends.
“I wonder if the person who made the decision really knows how remote Neil’s Harbour is?” says Fraser. “It’s one thing to know in your head that it’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive. It’s another thing to transfer down with a patient over that two-and-a-half hours, fretting over them the entire way.”
Dr. Ken Murray is one of two physicians working in the area approaching retirement. He says he thought he would only be in the area for a few years, but decades later, he’s still working.
“I thought I’d like to come for perhaps two years. Two years has now become 46,” says Murray.
This time last year, Dr. Nicola Smith ran a social-media campaign in the hopes of recruiting new doctors to the area.
“My generation, we’re looking to move a little bit outside the city. I think, previously, young people were going to the city looking for job opportunities,” suggests Smith.
“Fortunately, as a physician, you’re able to work just about anywhere. I think we’re looking to live a bit more in the country, grow our own vegetables, be outdoorsy, and I think it’s a great opportunity for that.”
However, a year later, no new doctors have moved to the area, and Fraser says reducing and cutting services will only make recruitment more difficult.
“Lessening those services greatly threatens the sustainability of the hospital,” says Fraser. “In order for that hospital to run, they have to have physicians, and it’s going to be very difficult to recruit a physician up there with only point-of-care testing and daytime X-ray, Monday through Friday.”
Fraser says replacing the lab technician with point-of-care testing is actually more expensive and causes a serious reduction in the quality of health care.
“You’re taking medicine back into the 19th century, pre-X-ray, and you’re diagnosing on clinical suspicion and treating on clinical suspicion,” she says.
CTV News reached out to Nova Scotia Health Minister Randy Delorey for comment, but calls were not returned by news time.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore
