'Incredibly sad tragedy': N.S. premier reacts to woman's ER death, speaks on status of health-care system

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is calling the recent death of a 37-year-old woman in an Amherst, N.S., hospital an "incredibly sad tragedy."

The premier spoke out a day after the woman’s husband held a news conference about his experience that day.

"A 37-year-old mother, wife, community leader, it's incredibly sad," said Houston, during an interview with CTV Power Play host Vassy Kapelos Tuesday. "The impact that it has on the community, on the family of course, but on the whole province, it's really, really heavy... So, it's front and centre on all of our minds." 

On Dec. 31, 2022, Allison Holthoff waited hours for care at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre in Amherst, despite showing signs of medical distress while waiting in the emergency department.

Holthoff died at the hospital about 12 hours after arriving. 

Houston says the health-care system in Nova Scotia, as well as across the country, is under pressure and has been that way in his province for "quite a while." 

"Certainly, I was elected a little over a year ago now on a campaign to get health care fixed, and I'm as committed as ever," he said. "And when we see these types of tragedies, it just makes us go a little... we know we need to go harder. There's a lot of work to be done, for sure. But the sadness of what happened is really heavy."

As far as the investigation into Holthoff's death, which was started automatically, Houston would not confirm if the results would be shared publicly, but said they will be shared with the family. 

Houston added it's important to understand what happened and learn those lessons to avoid a similar situation in the future. 

"So, the investigation will take place, it's already started, and then the next steps would be that the results of the investigation would be shared with the family first and foremost, and then we would go from there," said Houston. 

"Obviously, we're always concerned about privacy and people's private medical information, so we need to know what happened here. Health-care professionals want to know that, Nova Scotians want to know that somebody's checking, certainly the family has a right to answers. So, we'll do the investigation, the results will be shared and discussed with the family and then we will go from there." 

In August 2021, Houston became Nova Scotia's 30th premier following a campaign primarily promising to fix the province's health-care system.

Between January 2022 and December 2022, the number of people waiting for a primary physician increased from about 83,000 to approximately 125,000 people. 

Houston says everyone, including his government, shares concerns about that growing list. 

"It's easy to get impatient. I'm an impatient person. I push people very hard to go harder and go faster for sure," he said.

"What I would say to people, and I think Nova Scotians are pretty understanding, grounded and common sense, the issues in the health-care system, they've been growing for decades for sure, and certainly for the last number of years. I was very honest with Nova Scotians during the campaign that it would take time to fix health care, and that it would take money and it's taking a lot of money." 

Houston says his government is making significant investments in health care but reiterates it's going to take time to fix the system overall. 

"The 'Need a Family Practice' statistic that's going up, that's an indicator for sure. There are other metrics that I think in Nova Scotia, we've taken a lot of steps. The health leadership team are making a number of incremental improvements each week and each one of them will make an improvement for sure. Those are suggestions that are coming from front-line health-care workers. We're doing town halls with communities, we did town halls with health-care workers... and we've been very open." 

According to Houston, his government has been frank about what is happening in the province's health-care system. He says now, it's time to share more information about the "good stuff" that is also happening. 

"There's good stuff to be happening, but there is a lot of work to be done and when we have a loss like we've all experienced, that just reminds us how much work needs to be done," he said. 

"But I don't want Nova Scotians to think nothing is being done and it's easy to get impatient, but I just ask them to trust that the people managing the health-care system are as committed to getting it fixed as I am."

Houston says, although thousands of Nova Scotians are waiting for a family doctor, that does not mean they don't have access to care. 

"In fact, everyone on that list has access to virtual care, which is not for everything, but listen. I hear from Nova Scotians every day that said they had an interaction with the Virtual Care Nova Scotia and it was just what they needed," said Houston. 

"So, what we're talking about is making sure people can have access to care and that they connect with the health-care system at the right place. So, a lot of people, if you don't have a family doctor, you may have to go to the emergency room, probably not the right place for people to connect with the health-care system. So, I won't spend one second of time justifying the issues of the health-care system here or nationally. I know there is a lot of work to be done, but at the same time, I also think it's incumbent to acknowledge some of the work that is happening." 

Houston adds the province's health-care professionals are extremely dedicated to the care of Nova Scotians who are working hard to help where they can. 

"So, what I ask Nova Scotians to do is say, 'Yeah. We can have a frank discussion about the challenges. They're in our face every single day.' But also have some trust that things are happening, work is being done, people are doing the best that they can, and there's a lot to be done for sure."