N.S. health-care workers voice struggles the system faces as vacancy rate remains high

Frontline workers were front and centre at a legislature standing committee about health, describing the struggles they confront daily in Nova Scotia’s health-care system.

Among the five witnesses present were Nova Scotia Nurses Union, Nova Scotia Paramedics Union, and Doctors Nova Scotia, all of whom who said the province’s medical system is facing a lot of pressure as it struggles to attract and keep health care workers.

The president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union told MLAs that the vacancy rate is 16.5 per cent which is leading to hundreds of thousands of overtime.

“A lot of our younger nurses don’t get vacation,” said Janet Hazelton. “There’s no ability to replace them. That’s not sustainable. Some of our nurses are choosing to be agency nurses in other provinces.”

They aren’t alone. There are 200 vacancies for paramedics in the province right now, and like nurses, they are working a lot of overtime.

“A shift can sometimes run into about 700 to 800 kilometers a shift, which is a lot of travel and that weights on people and they leave the system,” said Kevin MacMullin with the Nova Scotia Paramedics Union.

An aging population and workforce is also part of the problem.

Nearly a quarter of physicians are 60-years and older, and the shortage is reaching critical levels. Right now, there are 213 physician vacancy positions posted online, over a 100 are family physician job postings.

“As of March 1, almost 16 per cent of Nova Scotian’s and over 156,000 are on ‘need a family practice’ list,” said past-president of Doctors Nova Scotia, Dr. Leisha Hawker.

The Department of Health and Wellness associate deputy minister, Craig Beaton, said there isn’t just one solution to this.

“It’s going to be expanding our education and training. It’s going to be immigration, it’s going to be recruitment and retaining the employees we have here.”

In a bid to address the shortages, recruitment efforts are taking place in Australia for paramedics, physicians and nurses to fill the positions here. So far, just one physician has agreed to come.

“We just need to focus on supporting those, especially internationally trained physicians so that they really set down roots and have long practice and career here,” said Dr. Hawker.

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