Nova Scotia recruits 33 U.S. doctors as physician hiring reaches record levels

A walk-in medical clinic in Dartmouth, N.S. (CTV News)

As Nova Scotia continues to manage a physician shortage, the province has announced it hired 278 new doctors in the calendar year ending on March 31.

“It’s a net gain of 199 new physicians,” said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, factoring in the 79 doctors who retired or left the province. “It means more appointments and it means more access to care.”

Thirty-three of the new hires are from the United States, 111 are family doctors and 167 are specialists. The province’s physician recruitment rate has improved by 10 per cent compared to the previous year.

Premier Houston said the recruitment strategy incorporates promoting the growth of Nova Scotia’s health-care system, including the new medical school at Cape Breton University, which opened in May and will admit 30 students each year.

“We are offering that to them, and they’re being attracted to it,” said Houston.

Showcasing the province as a nice place to live that offers a healthy work-life balance is also proving to be a selling point.

“The more we can make physicians and other health-care workers feel a part of the community, the more likely they are to stay,” said Doctors Nova Scotia president, Amanda MacDonald Green. “Overall, it is huge (what) they’ve been able to do over the last year, bringing in new physicians and our hope is that it continues to spinoff into improvements with retention.”

An influx of doctors is good news for a province with roughly 60,000 on the waitlist for a family doctor, but Premier Houston said more recruiting and more doctors are still needed to address the overall shortage.

“There is more to be done with specialist recruitment, more to be done in special areas like women’s health and mental health,” said Houston.

Jim Deleski splits his time between Massachusetts and Sydney, N.S., and is on the waitlist for a family doctor in Nova Scotia.

“I’m on blood pressure meds now and I was diagnosed with MS,” said Deleski. “So, not having a doctor now is a problem.”

Dr. Macdonald Green hopes to see further improvements to the quality of primary care in Nova Scotia, by streamlining and expanding what is called the “health home care model.”

“Health home care is where there are family physicians working with other care providers,” she said. “Nurse practitioners, social workers, physician assistants and family practice nurses.”

Dr. MacDonald Green said the best way to enhance these existing health-care models is to hire even more doctors, which Premier Houston said the province plans to do.