The Weymouth Doctor Recruitment Committee called a public meeting Oct. 18 to discuss the lack of access to primary health care in the Weymouth area.
The community has been without a doctor since Dr. Don Westby retired a year ago Nov. 1.
[Replacing Dr. Westby - a collection of coverage of the health care crisis in Weymouth]
The people of Weymouth would like to see a family doctor or doctors practice out of the Weymouth Health Clinic.
Speaker after speaker came to the microphone to express frustration that Weymouth has lost its “billing numbers”.
Billing number is an old term for how doctors were paid by the provincial government for their services.
Representatives from the Nova Scotia Health Authority spoke rather of “approved vacancies”.
Both mean the same thing – government approval for a doctor to practice in Weymouth.
While there are five approved vacancies for Digby, Weymouth has none.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) representatives at the meeting said they want to provide the people of Weymouth with access to a physician but they want those physicians based out of Digby or Clare.
“We don’t agree with the regionalization plan with Digby and Clare having doctors and Weymouth being left out,” said Rod Lefort who sits on the recruitment committee and emceed the meeting. “Weymouth doesn’t want to have to depend on Digby filling their clinic – we want to be part of that group of communities.”
Other speakers to the microphone underlined this point in more colloquial terms.
“We are not the poor cousins, we deserve what others have,” said one speaker.
Clare Digby MLA Gordon Wilson told the audience he had convinced the Minister of Health Leo Glavine to agree to approve a doctor to work in Weymouth if one could be found.
The Municipality of the District of Digby hired a professional recruiter last year for $25,000 to find a doctor for Weymouth.
Linda Gregory the Warden of the municipality, who also sits on the recruitment committee, said they were unable to get the minister’s approval in writing and that whenever their recruiter or prospective doctors called the health authority, they were told there were no approved positions in Weymouth.
Dr. Westby himself spoke at the meeting and finished his talk with three questions:
1) Does the NSHA agree that the area is facing a health care crisis?
2) Who does the NSHA answer to?
3) How can the community appeal or who can they appeal to about their difference of opinion on how to solve the lack of access to primary health care?
[For more of Dr. Westby’s comments, see:
Replacing Dr. Westby: Weymouth doctor describes lack of care for his former patients]
Dr. Crystal Todd, chief of family medicine for the western zone, said that providing primary health care for the area was a high priority and that every day she was talking to someone about a solution for the area.
“I am recruiting every single day. We understand the crisis that’s here. But it’s important to realize that part of the problem is that the doctors simply aren’t here to take the positions we do have.”
She wasn’t able to say who the health authority answered to but when pressed she said they work with the Department of Health.
“I wouldn’t want to say we answer to the Department of Health, we work side by side with them. We work together. We have conversations. But I will talk to some of my colleagues and get an answer for you,” she told the meeting.
Lefort said after the meeting that Weymouth has a strong retail sector, schools, churches and a great facility for doctors to work out of, but due to the decision by the health authority, they are unable to recruit a doctor to work there.
“We asked what is the appeal mechanism, who do we talk to if we want to appeal this decision,” he said. “Next we’ll have to think about if we take this directly to the minister.”
The Weymouth Doctor Recruitment Committee called a public meeting Oct. 18 to discuss the lack of access to primary health care in the Weymouth area.
The community has been without a doctor since Dr. Don Westby retired a year ago Nov. 1.
[Replacing Dr. Westby - a collection of coverage of the health care crisis in Weymouth]
The people of Weymouth would like to see a family doctor or doctors practice out of the Weymouth Health Clinic.
Speaker after speaker came to the microphone to express frustration that Weymouth has lost its “billing numbers”.
Billing number is an old term for how doctors were paid by the provincial government for their services.
Representatives from the Nova Scotia Health Authority spoke rather of “approved vacancies”.
Both mean the same thing – government approval for a doctor to practice in Weymouth.
While there are five approved vacancies for Digby, Weymouth has none.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) representatives at the meeting said they want to provide the people of Weymouth with access to a physician but they want those physicians based out of Digby or Clare.
“We don’t agree with the regionalization plan with Digby and Clare having doctors and Weymouth being left out,” said Rod Lefort who sits on the recruitment committee and emceed the meeting. “Weymouth doesn’t want to have to depend on Digby filling their clinic – we want to be part of that group of communities.”
Other speakers to the microphone underlined this point in more colloquial terms.
“We are not the poor cousins, we deserve what others have,” said one speaker.
Clare Digby MLA Gordon Wilson told the audience he had convinced the Minister of Health Leo Glavine to agree to approve a doctor to work in Weymouth if one could be found.
The Municipality of the District of Digby hired a professional recruiter last year for $25,000 to find a doctor for Weymouth.
Linda Gregory the Warden of the municipality, who also sits on the recruitment committee, said they were unable to get the minister’s approval in writing and that whenever their recruiter or prospective doctors called the health authority, they were told there were no approved positions in Weymouth.
Dr. Westby himself spoke at the meeting and finished his talk with three questions:
1) Does the NSHA agree that the area is facing a health care crisis?
2) Who does the NSHA answer to?
3) How can the community appeal or who can they appeal to about their difference of opinion on how to solve the lack of access to primary health care?
[For more of Dr. Westby’s comments, see:
Replacing Dr. Westby: Weymouth doctor describes lack of care for his former patients]
Dr. Crystal Todd, chief of family medicine for the western zone, said that providing primary health care for the area was a high priority and that every day she was talking to someone about a solution for the area.
“I am recruiting every single day. We understand the crisis that’s here. But it’s important to realize that part of the problem is that the doctors simply aren’t here to take the positions we do have.”
She wasn’t able to say who the health authority answered to but when pressed she said they work with the Department of Health.
“I wouldn’t want to say we answer to the Department of Health, we work side by side with them. We work together. We have conversations. But I will talk to some of my colleagues and get an answer for you,” she told the meeting.
Lefort said after the meeting that Weymouth has a strong retail sector, schools, churches and a great facility for doctors to work out of, but due to the decision by the health authority, they are unable to recruit a doctor to work there.
“We asked what is the appeal mechanism, who do we talk to if we want to appeal this decision,” he said. “Next we’ll have to think about if we take this directly to the minister.”
