ndp wants n.s. government to make good on expansion of cobequid community health centre
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ndp members paul wozney, sackville-cobequid, and dr. rod wilson, halifax armdale, flank ndp leader claudia chender, during a news conference outside of cobequid community health centre in lower sackville on wednesday.
tim krochak
/
the chronicle herald
the ndp say the time is now for the tim houston government to make good on election promises to expand the cobequid community health centre.
on wednesday, ndp leader claudia chender, sackville-cobequid mla paul wozney and party health critic rod wilson gathered outside the lower sackville facility to ask the government to address the dire situation recently faced by staff.
on nov. 4, wozney said, he was called by an emergency room doctor to report that staff were overwhelmed and facing what they considered to be an unmanageable situation.
the emergency room has 26 beds and 18 were filled by patients who required inpatient care and were awaiting transfer. some of the patients had been treated for cardiac issues, major breaks and stroke, and a few waited over 70 hours for inpatient transfer, according to wozney. the situation led to patients being turned away from the emergency room.
the emergency room does not have intensive care capacity and only has a skeleton crew of nurses when the department is closed to admissions between midnight and 7 a.m.
“the emergency room was overwhelmed,” said wozney. “patients, including one who suffered a stroke, were being turned away. for staff, it was an impossible situation trying to provide care in a system breaking down around them. for patients, it was terrifying. this isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s dangerous. it puts lives at risk.”
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wozney sent a letter to health minister michelle thompson the next day, asking for immediate action to help remedy the pressures. he said he has yet to hear back.
“the houston government needs to act urgently, and that starts with giving people answers about when they will get the health care they deserve,” said wozney. “tim houston and michelle thompson need to keep their promise to fix health care and provide the people of sackville with the peace of mind they deserve.”
an aerial photo of cobequid community health centre in lower sackville on wednesday.
tim krochak
working on cobequid wait times
nova scotia health senior adviser brendan elliot said that nov. 4 was definitely a busy day for cobequid staff but not the busiest day on record.
in an email, elliott said nova scotia health is working to ensure the flow of patients from their arrival in the emergency department through their initial care and, if necessary, to inpatient care is as timely as possible.
“there is a multi-pronged approach to reducing wait times for patients at cobequid. this includes a focus on reducing ambulance offload times, monitoring patients while they wait, as well as efficiently triaging patients in the emergency department using a new pilot program.
“we also now have unprecedented awareness of every hospital bed in the system. this real-time assessment of bed occupancy allows us to quickly ensure when one person is discharged from hospital another patient is right there, ready to be admitted.”
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elliott said it was important to note that if someone is in critical need of care at an emergency department, they will be seen.
“our emergency department system is based on a triage approach, where the most serious patients are seen first.”
the cobequid health centre has an overarching goal to improve flow through the department for all patients with a new model called fast track, said elliott.
there is an area in the cobequid emergency department staffed by two nurse practitioners who see less serious patients, he said. they are pulled from the overall stream of patients waiting in the emergency department and are cared for separately in five spaces.
promises made
the ndp asked about the cobequid community health centre during budgetary estimates in march 2023, and the minister of health said that the government was planning to expand the health centre with inpatient beds as well as a 24-hour emergency department.
but no plans have been put forward, said chender.
“the houston government has promised repeatedly an expansion of the cobequid community health centre,” said chender.
“a year after that promise was made, the minister of health doubled down about plans to expand the cobequid, something this community has been pushing for a very long time. unfortunately, families in sackville are still waiting for the houston government to keep this province.”
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about 150 patients visit the the cobequid emergency department daily.
“nova scotians were promised a health-care system they could rely on,” said wilson, who was a doctor at the original cobequid facility. “instead, wait times across the province are horrific, patients are in pain for hours, and staff are struggling because they can’t give people the care they know they deserve.”
according to nova scotia health data, from june 1, 2024 to today, the cobequid community health centre is the third busiest emergency department in the province, behind the halifax infirmary and valley regional hospital.
“its value to the people of nova scotia can’t be overstated,” said wozney. “it matters to sackville, but to bedford, to dartmouth, people come in from the valley and colchester down towards truro. this is a critical health care facility and the fact that you have staff who are trying to find ways to not work here, because it is an untenable situation, should be of grave concern to the minister.”
wozney said he has received no clear answers from the progressive conservative government on a plan or timeline for expansion.
the new democrats say emergency room issues are a provincewide problem, with ones in smaller communities often closed.
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“when someone you love is sick or injured, there is nothing more important than making sure they have the health care that they need,” said chender.
“people in rural communities across this province are in dangerous situations where they can’t count on open emergency rooms when they need them the most. for staff here at cobequid and right across this province, it is incredibly demoralizing that you spend years of your life studying to be a doctor or a nurse and to not have the resources you need to do your work.
“these folks are literally on the front lines of broken promises again and again, and the minister of health needs to tell this community and the hard-working staff here when their health care will be fixed.”
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