Halifax clinic announces closure, leaving 4,000 patients without family doctor

More than 4,000 patients at the Southend Family Practice in Halifax are losing their family doctors after the physicians announced they are closing their practices.

The four doctors, who are in the same clinic, say the decision was made after failing to find common ground with the province on staffing issues.

A letter written by Dr. Maria Sampson to her patients said the doctors at the clinic have been trying to get another doctor for more than a year to help ease their workload.

“Despite working with the Nova Scotia physician recruitment team for over a year, they have not secured a replacement physician to take over any of our patients,” Sampson wrote.

Nova Scotia Health Minister Michelle Thompson said there were some issues around how the doctors were supported "in terms of overhead."

"They are also looking for additional resources and through those discussions it’s my understanding that those additional resources would not in fact result in an increase level of access," said Thompson. "So, there would not be an increase attachment as a result of that."

The four doctors plan to stay in Nova Scotia and work in other roles within the health-care industry.

The Southend Family Practice will close on Aug. 30.

DOCTOR WAIT LIST

As of Feb. 14, nearly 134,000 Nova Scotians were in need of a family doctor. That number was up about 3,500 from the month before, according to numbers released by Nova Scotia Health.

The health authority said in the past year more than 27,000 people registered themselves onto the "Need a Family Practice" registry.

"Nova Scotia is growing at an unprecedented rate and the demand for health care is growing with it,” said Thompson in a Feb. 14 news release.

“Measurements such as the Need a Family Practice registry make it clear that the old way of doings things just won’t cut it anymore."