The interim leader of the PC Party believes more hip and knee replacements could be done in the province.
Karla MacFarlane is reacting to the auditor general’s report, which pointed to issues with the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s record on surgery waitlists.
With an average year and a half wait time, the province sits at three times the national benchmark.
MacFarlane thinks more investment and supplies are needed – as in more hips and knees.
She believes that’s the case in her riding of Pictou West.
“They definitely have operation time but they don’t actually have enough knees and hips so that’s something I think is an easy correction.”
But because the health authority doesn’t publish information on OR usage, she says it’s impossible to know what the situation is in the rest of the province.
Meanwhile, the Nova Scotia Health Authority says it’s not an issue of supplies but things could be managed differently.
Tim Guest, vice-president of intergrated health services and chief nursing officer, says they are hiring another surgeon for the hospital in Pictou.
They are also looking at other solutions, including moving some procedures to other hospitals in order to free up surgeons who can do hip and knee replacements.
For example, the Valley Regional Hospital can perform hip and knee surgeries, while South Shore Regional Hospital cannot.
Guest says if they move some day surgeries to the South Shore, it frees up the surgeons in the Valley to do more knee and hip replacements.
As far as the auditor general’s recommendations are concerned, Guest says the health authority wants to comply with them but he says things have been slow going since the province’s health authorities amalgamated.
“Specifically from the surgery perspective, we have two completely different OR systems in use in the province and some of the previous districts used them differently.”
He says NSHA agrees with the auditor general in making their data on waitlists and OR usage open to the public.
“I think it makes people more aware of what their expectations should be when they need to have one of these procedures,” he says.
Guest says that will start to be rolled out via their website in the coming weeks.
