The Yarmouth Regional Hospital will soon only have one anesthetist.
The hospital is approved for 4-full-time positions.
There are currently three on staff, but two have announced they’re leaving, one left late last year.
Dr. Brian Moses, site medical lead at Yarmouth Regional, says they have been actively recruiting for the vacancies.
“Probably March or April they will be leaving. We do have an interested candidate from South Africa.”
Dr. Moses says the approval process when recruiting from foreign countries is complex and could take a few months to a year.
“They (the candidate) have put their qualifications through to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and they have been approved. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia are agreeable to provide a license to this physician to practice in Nova Scotia. He’s just trying to get through the immigration process right now and my understanding is that should come through reasonably quickly. We’re hopeful that this person will arrive before the two other anesthesiologists leave.”
He says that would still leave Yarmouth two short of a full complement but they are actively recruiting from anywhere including around the world.
Here’s an example of recruiting link we found: one linkhttps://recruitment.nshealth.ca/opportunities/2019-0214/anesthesiologist
Dr. Moses says the hospital and the Nova Scotia Health Authority are trying to predict every possibility to ensure anesthesia services at Yarmouth are maintained.
“It is challenging to predict exactly what might happen although we are trying to predict every possibility so we can try to mitigate those issues. The possibilities would include trying to get emergency locum coverage, either from the other regional hospitals in our zone, Bridgewater and Kentville. So, Kentville is presently under-staffed although they do have a full complement of 10 anesthesiologists and they’re currently down to 8. So while they are short-staffed, it’s not to the level we are, so there may be some possibility of emergency locum coverage from there. Bridgewater is staff the same as we are and they have a full complement of 4 and they have a full complement of 4 and that may only be for a few more months but we’re still trying to work that out. The possibility of getting a locum from Halifax is there, the possibility of a new hire is there.”
He says if for some reason they were unable to secure locum coverage, and the one ananesthesiologist already here was unable to work for some reason then they would not be able to utilize the operating room for some procedures. Major surgeries would stop and those patients would have to be transferred to Kentville or Bridgewaterl.
Written by Gary Nickerson
nickerson.gary@radioabl.ca
(CJLS News photo)
