'Time for us to mobilize': Nova Scotia's ER deaths grow with doctor wait list

In a week where Nova Scotia's health-care system has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, there was more bad news Wednesday.

Newly released data shows that deaths in Nova Scotia emergency departments were up 10 per cent in 2022 from the previous year.

Six years' worth of stats compiled by the NDP through a freedom of information request shows 558 people died in emergency departments across the province last year -- up from 505 in 2021.

"There's a really disturbing trend," Claudia Chender, leader of the Nova Scotia NDP, told CTV News Wednesday.

"This government was elected to fix health care and health care is getting worse," said Chender, who is calling for an inquiry into the increase.

"This is the latest evidence of that, and Nova Scotians deserve to understand why, and what's going to be done about it."

For much of the week, the tragic death of a 37-year-old mother of three at a Cumberland County hospital on New Year's Eve has been in the headlines.

According to her husband, Allison Holthoff waited for seven hours with increasing pain in the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre emergency department before passing away.

The Health Department has launched a quality review to figure out what went wrong.

"Emergency departments across the country were never meant to carry the entire weight of the health-care system on their shoulders, and that's what they've been doing," said Catherine MacNeil, a newly-minted author and retired ER nurse and nurse manager in long-term care.

Her insightful critique of the medical system, "Dying to be Seen,” launched six days ago and is already a best seller at her publisher's store.

The book began as a time-killing project in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the meantime, there is no indication pressure on ERs is going to ease up anytime soon.

New numbers from the province's registry of those seeking a family doctor are fast approaching 130,000 thousand, or 13 per cent of the population.

Patricia Swinamer is one of them -- a situation she describes as "terrifying" as she gets older.

"I have health issues now, and no one to watch me, to help me, to report to," she said from Chester Basin, N.S.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson says the registry itself needs some fixing, but notes tens of thousands of Nova Scotians have access to other options, including virtual care.

She says there's more to the numbers than meets the eye.

"Much of the growth on the list is driven by the growth to our province, and so what's very important is that we continue to provide access to folks as we continue to try to attach them to a family practice," said Thompson.

"It is a very important tool, but we know there are some limitations to it," she said.

But MacNeil says more drastic action will be necessary.

"I think we, as funders of the system, have way more power than we think we do," she said.

"So, it really is time for us to mobilize."