Nova Scotia family doctor waitlist hits 116,000 people

HALIFAX -

As the number of Nova Scotians on the ‘Need A Family Practice’ waitlist grows, the provincial government hinted on Friday they may do away with reporting the numbers.

According to the October report, there are now 116,174 people on the province’s wait list for a family doctor. That number increased by more than 5,500 people since September.

Nova Scotia Health has routinely published the number of patients waiting for a family doctor during the first week of each month and has done so since 2016.

During question period on Friday, opposition parties questioned Premier Tim Houston why the province delayed releasing the October numbers, as the report was overdue.

“For the last eight years these numbers are released at the beginning of every month and we're now halfway through the month and we haven’t seen them yet,” said provincial Liberal Leader Zach Churchill. “And he [Premier Houston] refused to answer the question today, in terms of why those numbers haven’t been released.”

Nova Scotia Health published the October report Friday at 2 p.m. A spokesperson for the health authority said the report was late because of the two provincial holidays and further delays in processing data.

Premier Houston did not take questions from the media following question period on Friday, but in previous remarks, had questioned the accuracy of the numbers on the waitlist, implying they could be inflated.

The province’s health minister echoed that, suggesting there’s a gap in the reporting, and it takes longer for accounting to remove patients from the list.

But also hinted the Progress Conservatives may terminate the list.

“We’re not going to take the list away right now but I do think there’s an opportunity to look at the list and see if there’s increased functionality in the future,” said Nova Scotia Health Minister Michelle Thompson.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender believes the province want to do away with the list to avoid the public scrutiny.

“I think what we heard on the floor today was a desire to not register that number anymore,” added Chender.

Thompson said it’s not so much about the numbers, they want to make sure people on that list have access to care.

“We want to make sure that people on that list have access to primary health care,” said Thompson. “Through virtual care, through mobile health care units, through walk in clinics, through all those things and we attach them to care providers wherever possible.”

Chender said the Progressive Conservatives are downplaying the numbers but the numbers speak for themselves.

“They’ve said people can get virtual care, people can get care at a walk-in clinics, but number one that’s not true,” said Chender. “It’s very hard to access either of those and number two, those aren’t a stand-in for attachment to primary care or a family doctor.”

While in opposition the Progressive Conservatives have used the doctor wait list to question the Liberal’s handling of the health portfolio.