N.S. announces plans for new and expanded health-care clinics

The Nova Scotia government announced plans on Wednesday to expand existing health-care clinics and build new ones between now and 2025. 

Health Minister Michelle Thompson told a news conference that the government would spend $17 million on the 60 sites, which are spread around the province. The money would be for operational costs, recruiting and work required to build or expand sites.

Additional costs would come as new staff begin working at the clinics. Thompson said the government is committed to making "an ongoing investment in primary health care."

"We know we need to spend the money," she told reporters.

"We know that primary care is a priority and we know that it's going to prevent hospitalization, it's going to prevent, you know, illnesses from progressing."

The clinics take a variety of forms, all with the intention of improving attachment to primary-care practices and increasing access for patients who have yet to get a provider.

The announcement includes eight new collaborative family practice teams and new after-hours clinics, primary care clinics and urgent treatment centres. Thompson said the expanded offerings would divert more people from emergency departments as their de facto care option and have a "significant impact" on the size of the need-a-family-practice registry, which hit 145,000 people this month.

"We are working to ensure that no matter where you live, you can get the care you need," she said.

"We said we would fix health care and that is exactly what we are doing."

Achieving that goal, however, is going to require more people working in the health-care system.

Officials said Thursday that 53 per cent of the positions across all zones have been filled and most of the remaining positions have been posted and are in different stages of the hiring processes.

Officials said Wednesday's announcement should help recruitment. 

Dr. Maria Alexiadis, senior medical director of Nova Scotia Health's primary health care and chronic disease management network, said new medical graduates train in collaborative settings and want to work that way when they become fully certified.

The collaborative approach is also one doctors from outside of Canada want, said Alexiadis. During a recent recruitment trip to the United Kingdom, it was "almost expected" that collaborative practices would be available for doctors looking to move to Nova Scotia, she said.