ARICHAT: Richmond County is giving its financial support to a doctor recruitment group and has joined forces with the Town of Port Hawkesbury.
Dorothy Barnard represented Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health at Richmond Municipal Council’s committee-of-the-whole meeting on March 9 in Arichat requesting financial support to market the area, provide consultation, host site visits, and attend conferences such as an upcoming event in Ottawa for rural physicians.
Council unanimously passed a motion to provide funding to the group. During a special emergency meeting on Monday afternoon in Arichat, council approved a recommendation from the committee-of-the-whole to greenlight $15,448 in municipal funds.
During the March 9 meeting, council also approved a motion for the municipality to partner with the Town of Port Hawkesbury to recruit health care professionals to the region.
Town and county officials will now engage with representatives of the Strait-Richmond Hospital, the Dr. Kingston Memorial Community Health Centre, St. Anne Community and Nursing Care Centre, the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce, the Cape Breton Partnership, and other partners in the Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health group. The group aims to build on the strengths of local communities and provide a more collaborative environment to attract health care professionals.
The group hosted a visit to Port Hawkesbury by six doctors on March 2 and 3 and is working with the Nova Scotia Health Authority to arrange additional physician visits to all three participating medical facilities in the region.
“Our efforts have benefited greatly due to the collective expertise and experiences of this group’s dedicated partners, but we are limited by the reliable information we currently have access to,” says Dr. Trevor Boudreau, Port Hawkesbury Town Councillor and co-chair of Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health. “Our real strength is going to come from our local residents and the feedback they can provide to help us build a stronger case for physician attraction in this region.”
Barnard told council the health centre in L’Ardoise will lose both of its physicians by the end of June. Because of the current shortage of nurses and regular emergency room closures, the group wants to coordinate all recruitment efforts regionally and aggressively pursue health care professionals.
“When one piece of this system falls apart, the rest of it will fall apart,” Barnard stated. “There’s an impact on Isle Madame, there’s an impact on Port Hawkesbury, there’s an impact on the area.
“All of the health facilities and physician offices in this area are suffering from decreased numbers of staff or inadequate staff, so that’s been affecting our ER coverage… Also there’s a significant number of people in the area who don’t have a physician.”
As a result, the top priority of the group is physician recruitment, Barnard said, noting it will take time to fill positions, but the need is immediate and increasing. She pointed out that having physicians also makes it easier to attract nurses and others to the area.
“In order to do that, we need to do things like hosting visits,” she explained. “We need to market – not only market Cape Breton and this area – but we also need to market that this is a good place for health professionals to move and live and work, and that the lifestyle here is one that they can be comfortable with. And we also need to go into conferences. It’s much easier on a one-to-one basis when you meet people in a different part of Canada to actually explain and answer their questions.”
Barnard said there is an economic effect to losing health care professionals because it deters those wanting to move to the region and the community loses the skills they provide.
After the motions passed, Warden Brian Marchand asked those without physicians to register with the provincial government by calling 811 or going to: https://needafamilypractice.nshealth.ca/.