N.S. votes: Liberals promise more collaborative care, Tories pledge menopause clinic

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia Liberal leader Zach Churchill has pledged to build 20 new collaborative care centres and expand services at 20 existing clinics as a way to help tackle the province’s stubbornly long family doctor wait-list.

Outside Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, N.S., in the Annapolis Valley, Churchill discussed part of his party’s vision for health care, which includes more clinics where doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals collaborate under one roof.

As of October, the province’s primary care registry listed 145,000 Nova Scotians without a family doctor. Churchill said access to care is particularly difficult in rural areas where patients without family doctors often end up in emergency rooms — if they are open.

“At this hospital, the emergency department has been closed more than it’s been open over the last three years,” he said. “Collaborative care centres are proven to be an effective model for providing people with quality care, and they will certainly attach patients to doctors and primary care providers.”

The government says that across the province there are already 107 collaborative teams working in about 50 clinics that are in various stages of development. The 20 new clinics the Liberals are promising would cost about $40 million — a bill the party plans to amortize over 25 years, bringing the estimated yearly capital cost to $1.6 million.

To encourage health workers to staff the new centres, the Liberals would offer a one-time $15,000 bonus to professionals such as pharmacists and therapists who commit to five years of service. As well, the party would double the existing incentive for doctors to $10,000 a year from $5,000.

Churchill pointed to the success of the collaborative care centre in Clare, N.S., as an example of the potential way forward. He said it’s fully staffed and patient attachment is so high the clinic is able to take on extra patients from nearby Yarmouth, N.S., and Digby, N.S.

“Imagine if we can replicate that success in every region of our province,” he said, while offering no timeline on when the new clinics would be in service.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said in an interview with News 95.7 host Todd Veinotte that an NDP government would work toward establishing collaborative care clinics in every community.

“We need to prioritize primary care and make sure everyone has a doctor or a clinic they can go to,” Chender said, adding that the collaborative model, which relies on nurses and other medical professionals in addition to doctors, is ideal for a province that is short on physicians.

The Progressive Conservatives — elected in 2021 on a promise to fix the health system — have made “a million announcements, they’ve spent billions of dollars,” she said. “We haven’t made a dent in that (primary care wait-list). That has to be the priority.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston made a health announcement of his own on Wednesday, promising to open a Halifax-based medical clinic to treat symptoms of menopause.

“The fact of the matter is women have traditionally been underserved by our health system. That’s just a reality,” Houston told reporters. Such a clinic, he said, is needed for the 350,000 women over 40 who don’t get adequate treatment for symptoms related to menopause.

“For too long, too many of these women have been left feeling like they’re fending for themselves in isolation as their bodies go through challenges,” Houston said.

The party estimates it would cost $4 million to set up the clinic and $2.4 million annually to operate it, and that it would provide care for approximately 13,000 patients per year. No timeline was offered on how long it would take to get the clinic up and running.

Houston added that a Tory government would “explore” creating a provincial health billing code that would fund family doctors to do menopause counselling.

At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives held 34 seats in the 55-seat legislature, the Liberals held 14 seats, the NDP had six and there was one Independent. Election day is Nov. 26.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.

Keith Doucette and Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press