Family doctors took more than 24,000 new patients using the Nova Scotia government’s incentive program introduced a year ago, but the multimillion dollar initiative has not reduced the province’s wait list for a family physician.
In fact, the list has increased by roughly 7,000 people over a year, according to Nova Scotia Health Authority records. The latest March figures show roughly 51,000 on the family physician wait list, up from about 44,000 in March 2018.
The $6.4-million program announced last April encouraged doctors to accept patients from the provincial wait list by offering them a one-time $150 bonus per patient. Health Minister Randy Delorey divulged the numbers after being questioned on the program by Tory health critic Karla MacFarlane at the legislature this week.
Delorey said 530 physicians, about half of the family doctors in the province, had accessed the program. He said the cost of the program amounts to $3.6 million and that the doctors would be paid out at the end of April.
The Chronicle Herald inquired with the Department of Health to account for why the waiting list has increased since the program was launched, but did not get a response to that question. It is not clear on how the department is ensuring patients taken on through the program are being properly monitored by physicians.
But department spokeswoman Barbara MacLean did say that all physicians in the province are governed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia and have a responsibility to ensure that all claims submitted to MSI for payment are appropriate and consistent with the MSI Physicians Manual.
“Medavie Blue Cross conducts various audits post payment, which includes verification that billed services were provided to patients as specified on the claims submitted, such as patient attachment,” said MacLean in a statement.
Health-care consultant Mary Jane Hampton questions how many of those thousands of patients are able to see their physician in a timely manner.
“It’s questionable whether there is really access or not,” said Hampton. “Having a family doctor is one thing, getting to see that family doctor is quite another.”
Tory leader Tim Houston said he isn’t reassured by the results of the incentive program. Houston joined a Nova Scotia Federation of Labour/union-led health-care rally held outside the legislature on Wednesday afternoon. He says the province needs to acknowledge there’s a health-care crisis facing the province.
“The government hasn’t acknowledged that there’s a crisis in the health-care system, including access to primary care,” said Houston. “They won’t say there’s a crisis. The first thing I want to see is for the province to acknowledge the depth of the problems. That’s the first step.”
RELATED:
- Gender, race and finances all factor in the search for a doctor in Atlantic Canada
- As Atlantic communities struggle to fill vacant clinics, doctors point to possible solutions
- Doctor shortage - connecting the dots and seeking solutions for Atlantic Canada
- Doctor shortage takes toll on Nova Scotia specialists
