HALIFAX: With at least one surgeon set to retire from active duty at Inverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital (ICMH) next month and a second slated to depart the area in the months to come, Inverness MLA Allan MacMaster is hoping for a quick response from Nova Scotia’s Minister of Health and Wellness on this issue.
Speaking to The Reporter five days after raising the issue with Health Minister Leo Glavine in the provincial legislature, MacMaster was heartened by Glavine’s pledge to follow up with MacMaster on the health services plan for ICMH and the drive to recruit new surgeons to fill the two impending vacancies.
“I do expect to hear from him this week, and I will be following up with him, and I’m hopeful that there is a plan in place,” said MacMaster.
“The surgeons who will someday retire have all kinds of things impacting that decision, and that’s still a personal decision. But the health care system needs to make sure that it’s ready for when that time comes.”
In posing his question to the minister, MacMaster pointed out that the replacement of surgeons at ICMH also carries an economic impact, as he estimated that nearly $1 million in salaries is associated with the payment of a surgeon at the Inverness hospital in addition to the administrative staffer and six nurses who normally accompany a surgical position.
“And, of course, operating rooms need to be immaculately clean, so there are people working at keeping the room clean,” MacMaster noted.
“And those are all good jobs in the Inverness area, and we wouldn’t want to lose those jobs either – we want to keep the service local.”
In speaking to MacMaster at Province House on November 3, Glavine suggested that recruitment of surgeons is a difficult task not just in Nova Scotia but across Canada.
“I know the [Nova Scotia] Health Authority sometimes will run into trouble in terms of recruitment,” said Glavine.
“As we now know, right across this country, confirmed recently at the [federal-provincial health] accord meetings, that every minister is up against the wall in terms of recruitment. There are just not enough doctors in some categories and areas available right across Canada, and I know that recruitment is certainly underway [in Nova Scotia].”