Bouncing. Laughter.
More bouncing. More laughter.
But behind Hunter’s giggles and behind his mother’s smiles, a lot weighs heavily on her mind. This is because pediatrician services are not available at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital.
One pediatrician retired last year and the other later moved away from the area.
Hunter, who turns five in August, has acute lymphocytic leukemia and has to undergo chemotherapy treatment. He’s fortunate that the type of leukemia he has comes with a high cure success rate. But without a pediatrician always available here to do assessments of him and/or offer other pediatric services, it means at times he has to travel to the IWK in Halifax for medical treatment.
Bouncing. Laughter.
More bouncing. More laughter.
But behind Hunter’s giggles and behind his mother’s smiles, a lot weighs heavily on her mind. This is because pediatrician services are not available at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital.
One pediatrician retired last year and the other later moved away from the area.
Hunter, who turns five in August, has acute lymphocytic leukemia and has to undergo chemotherapy treatment. He’s fortunate that the type of leukemia he has comes with a high cure success rate. But without a pediatrician always available here to do assessments of him and/or offer other pediatric services, it means at times he has to travel to the IWK in Halifax for medical treatment.
“If he spiked a fever tonight I would go into the emergency department. They would hook up his portacath, do blood work. If certain counts are low it would mean an automatic ambulance trip to the IWK because of no pediatric coverage in Yarmouth. Nobody is able to look out for us here,” Christie says. “We’ve gone twice so far by ambulance because of no pediatrics here.”
And sometimes they have to go that far just for a 15-minute appointment.
They do have a family doctor, but Christie says her son also requires specialized pediatric care.
They’re not alone.
April Parent is another mother whose family is impacted by the lack of available pediatric services. Her son Lucas suffers from an illness that makes him extremely susceptible to what can be life-threatening infections.
“He doesn't have the ability to make his own immune system,” she says. “We've been followed by the IWK since he was about two-and-a-half.”
Lucas turns six next month.
His medical treatments include transfusions and his mother says Lucas’s health psychologist also says he displays a type of post-traumatic stress and anxiety from the ongoing medical treatments he requires.
Parent says they used to access pediatrician services in Yarmouth, which helped them to avoid visits to outpatients at the hospital. They don’t have a family doctor.
“Going to the ER department exposes Lucas to a lot of bacteria and illnesses because you’re going where everybody has influenza or stomach viruses,” his mom says. “Because Lucas picks things up so easily he risks getting more sick going to the emergency department than he would if we have access to a pediatrician.”
She says pediatric services are needed.
“We were really hopeful that someone would be replacing the pediatricians, seeing where one retired and then the other one gave their notice,” she says. “There was an extended period of time when we went from two to one, and then we went from one to none.”
She says it is a strain for her family.
“It’s frustrating for a single mother without a car to try and find a route and transportation to go to the IWK to have his needs met,” she says.
This newspaper contacted a spokesperson for the Yarmouth Regional Hospital and Nova Scotia Health Authority for an update on where things stand concerning the lack of pediatric services in Yarmouth.
“We are definitely worried about the status of the pediatric coverage in our western zone,”
says Dr. Cheryl Pugh, head of obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics for the western zone.
“We are working very, very closely with the IWK and others to try and maintain some support for the health-care providers who are there locally and we have been extensively recruiting,” Dr. Pugh says. “The shortage is absolutely an urgent priority for the Nova Scotia Health Authority.”
You can read more about the recruitment efforts, and the challenges. by clicking here.
