The province is spending $40 million in incentives to retain and attract doctors to Nova Scotia.
Premier Stephen McNeil made the announcement today along with the Dr. Tim Holland, president elect of Doctors Nova Scotia and Dr. Heather Johnson, a Bridgewater family doctor who runs a collaborative care practice.
“These investments are a great first step in making Nova Scotia more competitive across the Atlantic provinces which will thereby retain the physicians we have here, encourage physicians that may have left to come back, to keep more grads in Nova Scotia, and recruit other family doctors to Nova Scotia,” says Holland. “This isn’t just about putting more dollars in the pockets of family doctors, this allows family doctors to practice the way they want to.”
Part of the funding will see the rate doctors receive for visits from patients under the age of 65 raise from $31.72 to $36.
The rate for patients over 65 will bump up to $44.54 from $40.26.
Johnson says the new incentives will help attract new doctors.
“By closing the gap in our local compensation with the other provinces, we’re hopeful that’s going to help us recruit physicians as they graduate from Dalhousie (University),” says Johnson.
She adds that the funding will allow doctors to spend more time with patients.
The funding includes a one-time incentive of $150 for each patient a family doctor takes off the provincial list.
It also includes incentives for using telephones to communicate with patients, which the premier says will help doctors practice the way they want to.
“There is no single one model that will work, this isn’t 1960 anymore, people want to have a different practice, they want to do differently, technology is a big part of that, we’ll work on how these incentives work around that,” says McNeil.
Some of the paperwork needed by doctors to communicate via phone or email will now be eliminated.
Doctors will also be supported through an Electronic Medical Record Incentive Trust to the tune of $8.5 million to change electronic medical record providers.
The announcement marks the latest in end of the fiscal year spending by the McNeil government.
The 2018-19 budget will be delivered tomorrow.
FILE PHOTO.
