ANTIGONISH: Michelle Thompson says the biggest issue the Department of Health and Wellness is facing is human resources.
“We do know that primary care providers, as an example, not just family physicians, but also nurse practitioners, we need more. We certainly need more nurses in health care across the system,” Thompson said to a group of approximately 50 community members in Antigonish. “We won’t be able to catch up, simply by growing our own workforce, we’re going to have to have people come here and work, so whether they come through in-migration from other provinces or other counties.”
The comments were made as three high ranking officials within the provincial health care system made a stop in Antigonish on Oct. 24, as part of a province-wide tour discussing how the Houston government has been improving health care across Nova Scotia.
In Antigonish, Brent MacDougall, Nova Scotia Health’s (NSH) Vice President of Operations in the Eastern Zone, Deputy Minister of Health and Wellness Jeannine Lagassé, and Thompson, the Minister of Health and Wellness spoke to the community members about the status of health care around the area.
Thompson, who is also the MLA for Antigonish, suggested they wanted to get into communities across the province to have these conversations as they know health care is one of the most singularly important issues that Nova Scotians are worried about.
Alternating between pre-submitted questions and questions from the audience, during the hour-and-a-half long discussion, Thompson indicated after they were elected it was important to the premier to travel around the province and speak with health care workers.
“We had a great opportunity to talk with health care workers, in particular about things they felt were important, the changes that they had experienced that they felt needed to be addressed in order to improve health care,” Thompson told The Reporter in an interview following the discussion. “Those voices are what informed our health care plan which is called Action for Health. To accompany Action for Health, it was also really important for us to be accountable.”
In addition to the action plan, the heath minister promised that the department will provide updates on how they are performing and where they are improving, as some of these conversations are quick and some are long-term.
“Sometimes we will be admitting that maybe there hasn’t been full improvement yet. But you’ll understand what the actions are, that we are taking,” Thompson said. “We want to tell you about what’s going on. We’ll be truthful, honest, and transparent about what things are happening.”
Mentioning one highlight, Thompson said that in Sept. 2021, 86 per cent of low-acute transfers were happening with paramedics, and they’ve been able to reduce that down to 22 per cent, noting their goal is to condense it further, to five per cent.
Thompson fielded a pre-submitted question from a nurse practitioner student at Memorial University in Newfoundland who asked what types of supports they can offer students, as the Returning Service Incentive program targets students at Dalhousie University only.
“This is something that we have taken to the department, we had a chance to see the question before today and look at how we support and who we support, and if there are programs that are outside of the province that meet our qualifications,” Thompson said in response. “We’re going to have a more deep conversation about that. We appreciate that; it’s something that we hadn’t thought about I think. It’s a great question and it highlighted a gap for us.”
A critical care nurse from St. Martha’s Regional Hospital asked the panel, in terms of recruitment, which can take some time, what the plans were in the meantime to ensure nurses are getting vacation, getting adequate breaks, and not staying at work for 24 hours or longer.
“It is a very challenging situation that we’re in, in relation to nurses for sure. That’s an experience that unfortunately some of our staff has felt in a number of sites,” MacDougall responded. “But based on your question, we’re going to have to ask people to do some planning of their own a little bit differently and that’s going to veer away from everybody trying to take vacation in the summertime. We’ll have to be flexible to try and think a bit differently than how we’ve done over the past 20 years.”
In smaller hospitals, the group of individuals who provide critical care is smaller, so Thompson advised if there is a solution the team has, they would really appreciate any advice.
“Because what works maybe at Cape Breton Regional is not going to be applicable to St. Martha’s, as an example in what the opportunities are,” she said. “If there’s an opportunity to lure some of those retired folks back, we would be interested in that as well; we’re open to all ideas. The new nurses that are coming out, it’s really important that they’re in a supportive environment because if they’re not supported we may lose them.”
Another reason why in-migration is important, Thompson indicated, was as they grow their own workforce, it results in having a lot of novice practitioners, however, when they see people come to them from a different province or a different country, they’re usually mid-career professionals.
An emergency department nurse from St. Martha’s highlighted the constant emergency department closures at hospitals in Richmond and Guysborough counties, and the fact retention and recruitment of physicians and nurses is not going to happen overnight, so she asked the panel what was going to be done in the meantime.
“We are beyond overrun. We only have so many beds, we only have so many nurses, who a significant amount are becoming travel nurses now, and we’re now wasting money on travel nurses to come into our hospitals,” she said. “Is there any talk of what are we going to do in the meantime to help our hospital, because right now it’s 12 hour waits, people aren’t getting the care they need, we barely have time to do the necessities, let alone all the nice things that we like to do when we take care of them.”
MacDougall advised NSH is working hard on how they staff and maximize bed utilization within Antigonish and Guysborough counties.
“We are having some success in Guysborough; 12 months ago we had one physician, we now have four physicians,” he said. “Similarly in Canso, we had to unfortunately close the nighttime emergency department a few years ago and although we still are having some challenges with covering a few days of emergency department, the nursing team had been stabilized there.”
(From the left): Brent MacDougall, Nova Scotia Health’s Vice President of Operations in the Eastern Zone; Deputy Minister of Health and Wellness Jeannine Lagassé; and Michelle Thompson, Minister of Health and Wellness, spoke to community members in Antigonish about the status of health care in the local area.
Speaking on people’s personal choices about in-person or virtual care, Lagassé suggested it’s about giving people options to access care in a way that bests suits their needs.
“It’s also about making sure people understand their pathway. Because we haven’t always been great at communicating with you how you actually get to those services or where they are,” she said. “Looking at the various options, is making sure you as community know how to access things in your community, which might not be the same as in the next.”
As for how overloaded St. Martha’s is, Thompson advised it varies.
“There are times where we feel it’s more compressed, and there are times where it’s more manageable,” she said. “So one, it’s around strengthening primary care, making sure people have access so people don’t have to go to the emergency room with non-emergent issues.”