Three new nurses have been recruited to Hubbards and Lunenburg.
The Nova Scotia Liberals recently announced a nurse joined the family practice team in Hubbards that was created eight months ago.
A new clinic in Lunenburg has also been created with the addition of a nurse practitioner and a family practice nurse.
Lunenburg MLA Suzanne Lohnes-Croft says she’s pleased to see new nurses recruited to the area.
She adds, government wants to improve access to care for more Nova Scotians.
More than 1,700 people have found a family practice in the past two years in the Hubbards and Lunenburg area.
A director with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, Jo-Anne Wentzell, says there is growing interest in transitioning to a team-based approach.
She adds, they are creating and strengthening more teams, which helps recruit and keep primary health care providers in communities.
Approximately 130 health professionals such as nurses, social workers and dietitians, have been hired in Nova Scotia since March 2017.
Meanwhile, closures or reduced hours to emergency rooms has drawn criticism from the PC MLA for Queens-Shelburne.
Roseway Hospital has had to shut down multiple times because a doctor wasn’t available.
Kim Masland says she’s been addressing hospital closures since she was elected in 2017.
“Since I last asked, the ER has been closed for 778 hours. That’s 32 days. The Roseway ER has been closed for more than a full month.”
Masland points to one of her constituents who suffered a spinal injury and spent four days on a gurney in an emergency room waiting for a bed.
She says of those four days, the ER was closed twice.
Masland says that’s unacceptable for any Nova Scotian.
(Photo Courtesy: Nova Scotia Health Authority)
Reported by: Nick Yorston
Twitter: @NickYorston
E-mail: yorston.nick@radioabl.ca
