Representatives from municipalities across Southwest Nova met in Shelburne today to discuss what they call a crisis in the health care system.
The meeting was headed up by Shelburne mayor Karen Mattatal and Chris Parsons from the Nova Scotia Health Coalition.
Mattatal decided to hold the meeting in response to local ER closures and a lack of doctors.
Weymouth, Yarmouth, Shelburne, Lunenburg, and Digby were among the communities represented at the meeting, as well as around a dozen members of the public.
Parsons says problems with health care, like access or lack of doctors, is felt across the province, but not felt equally.
“The reality of this province is that things are going relatively well in Halifax,” says Parsons. “In Halifax, we struggle for access but it doesn’t look the same here but it also doesn’t look the same if you’re poor.”
“We have a crisis of rural poverty that’s not being addressed,” he adds.
Parsons says the province is expecting locals to attract people to their communities but without investment in things like maternal health or doctors, people won’t come.
Carolyn Boliver-Getson, mayor of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, also touched on that.
She’s worried about doctors retiring and then not being able to get or retain new doctors.
She says no matter how many recreation facilitiies a community has, that doesn’t make up for the fact that new doctors inherit huge caseloads and probably couldn’t use the facilities because they wouldn’t have the time.
Rick Snow, a registered nurse and a clinical instructor with Dalhousie University, moved back to Shelburne from Ontario two years ago and was at today’s meeting.
He says he’s never seen healthcare in such disarray.
“Emergency departments being used as walk-in clinics, accute care units that are supposed to be used for sick people, being used to house people waiting for nursing homes.”
Snow says healthcare professionals are doing their best but the system is under stress and needs investment from both provincial and federal governments.
The meeting also included a video presentation which featured Shelburne community members sharing stories of their problems with access including one person whose child became severely ill, including having seizures, on Thanksgiving when Roseway’s ER was closed.
Mattatal says she’s happy with how the meeting turned out.
“I think it was a very good starting point, it certainly was apparent that the people in the room were all of the same mind that there is a crisis of health care in Nova Scotia and want to find solutions,” says Mattatal.
At the end of the session, the group gave themselves a name – the Rural Health Care Crisis Working Group.
They also spoke of next steps including bringing more municipalities to the table, drafting a petition and joint statements, meeting with opposition members, and possibly visiting Province House collectively.
