N.S. rolls out $10K incentive for doctors to take on sickest patients from wait list

HALIFAX -

Nova Scotia is offering doctors $10,000 to take 50 patients off the province's registry of people waiting for family physicians.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson said Thursday the province will also prioritize moving people with the most pressing medical needs off the list.

"Not every physician will take us up on this," Thompson said. "But we want to appeal to those that feel they have the time and space to be able to do that."

The wait-list includes about 150,000 people across the province who are in need of a primary care provider.

People can voluntarily add their health information to their wait-list profile to help the province identify those with the most complex needs. Patients can include information such as whether they are pregnant or have existing chronic diseases or disabilities, including dementia, asthma, arthritis, or cancer.

Thompson said the changes turn the registry from a list into a tool, with the sickest Nova Scotians triaged to be matched with a doctor before those with less pressing medical problems, regardless of how long they've been on the list.

Doctors will only get the initial $10,000 after taking 50 of the sickest patients from the wait-list. After meeting that minimum, doctors will receive an additional $200 for every extra patient they accept.

Dr. Nicole Boutilier, executive vice-president of medicine and clinical operations with Nova Scotia Health, said it's up to individual doctors to determine if they have the capacity to take on more patients, adding there are family doctors in the province who are "actively building" their practices.

She noted that the province gained a net total of 86 new doctors over the past year.

Dr. Colin Audain, president of Doctors Nova Scotia, said the program follows a core principle of medicine: treat the most urgent patients first.

"It's not just about first come, first served," Audain, the head of the professional order representing physicians, told reporters.

He said some new physicians will have room to grow their patient roster, but he wasn't sure how big of a dent the program will make in the province's burgeoning wait list, which has grown by 50 per cent over the past year.

Associate deputy health minister Craig Beaton said the province doesn't have a targeted number of people they expect to move off the wait-list with these new measures, nor does the province have a set budget for the four-month program.

Nova Scotia's Opposition Liberals noted the initiative doesn't add any doctors to the province.

"That tells me they really haven't thought this out," said Liberal Leader Zach Churchill.

He accused the government of taking "reactive measures, usually in response to headlines" instead of coming up with a fulsome strategy.

"This is a temporary, stop-gap measure that I don't think is going to cut it," Churchill said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2023.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

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