More doctors and other health professionals from the U.S. want to move to Nova Scotia, according to Nova Scotia Health. (Province of Nova Scotia)

The unstable political situation in the United States may be good news for the Nova Scotia health care system.

More doctors and other health professionals working in the U.S. are looking to move north. One of the places they’re calling is Nova Scotia. And some of them also want to move to Queens County.

Lauren Murphy, director of recruitment and volunteer services with Nova Scotia Health, says they’ve seen an increase in applications from people from the U.S.

“Honestly, we’re hearing some pretty amazing stories,” she told QCCR this week.

“We’re hearing people who maybe have family members who are trans who don’t feel safe anymore. We’re hearing about people who are Canadians but have been living in the U.S. for years and working in their health care system and not feeling safe anymore and wanting to come back to Canada. We’re hearing from people who are internationally educated but living in the U.S. and again not feeling safe. It’s a scary time in the States and I do think people are seeing Canada as that safe space.”

Murphy said that the health care professionals reaching out to Nova Scotia Health recruiters are extremely qualified and experienced. They include doctors, nurses and other professionals.

“And the beauty is that the hospital setting in the U.S. is very very similar to what we have in Canada in terms of the level of care. And so being able to hire someone from the U.S., they can pretty much hit the ground running. As horrible as it is, maybe there is some silver lining that people can find a new home here in Nova Scotia and build roots and bring family or create families, and that’s great for our economy and great for us as a province.”

Murphy did not say how many doctors or other health professionals are interested in making the move from the U.S. to Nova Scotia.

According to data obtained in January 2024 by the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, more than 1,000 health-care positions were still waiting to be filled in Nova Scotia. That includes professionals other than doctors and nurses.

And in March, about 96,000 Nova Scotians were still without a primary care provider. That was down from February’s number of just over 104,000. About nine per cent of the population is still looking for a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

Murphy acknowledged that there’s a global shortage of health-care professionals. Jurisdictions like Nova Scotia have been looking in other countries to fill those spots.

The process can take some time, especially as candidates navigate immigration and licensing requirements. Nova Scotia Health has its own immigration team to help make it easier for clinicians or other professionals to move here.

Nova Scotia recently opened a new centre to help speed up the licensing process for internationally trained physicians. It takes about 12 weeks to complete and doctors agree to practise in the province for at least three years.

Murphy says American-based doctors also ask her recruitment team about the differences in culture and taxation.

“It’s a huge step to move to a different country,” she said. “A lot of the conversations start off very exploratory. If you’re thinking about the U.S., you’re also potentially talking to a candidate who is coming from a state that doesn’t pay tax.

“But … we really are seeing people who are like, ‘No, we have to do this, we’re taking the plunge.’ And we’re really seeing those numbers now.”

Some of those doctors and other professionals are interested in moving to Queens County. 

Dr. Al Doucet is the chair of the Queens General Hospital Foundation, which works with Nova Scotia Health to bring doctors to the area.

He was out of the country and unavailable for an interview Friday. But he said in a text message that the foundation is getting inquiries from physicians and physician assistants about moving here.

Nova Scotia Health recently named Liverpool-based Dr. Alison Freeman the MD recruitment and retention lead for the South Shore.

To help with those recruitment efforts, Nova Scotia Health is holding a provincial career fair on March 27 at 11 locations around the province. Officials will be at the Michelin Social Club in Bridgewater from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Murphy says the job fair targets Nova Scotians who are interested in a first-time position with Nova Scotia Health or transferring to a different part of the province. More than 220 people were hired through last year’s job fair.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below

Morgan Sampson, echocardiogram technician, and Queens General Hospital Foundation trustees Kelly Whalen, Kerry Morash, Janice Reynolds and Al Doucet with the new echocardiogram at Queens General Hospital in Liverpool. (Queens General Hospital Foundation photo)

Queens County residents will be able to stay closer to home for vital testing, thanks to an investment by the Queens General Hospital Foundation.

The foundation recently invested almost $400,000 to install a new echocardiogram and cardiopulmonary exercise testing machine at Queens General in Liverpool.

Al Doucet, a retired physician who is chairman of the hospital foundation, said that means that cardiologists and internal medicine specialists can now see more people here.

“They’re significant because they bring to Liverpool testing that otherwise was not available anywhere else, people had to travel for this,” Doucet told QCCR.

“But also, people that are in hospital, that are hospital patients, this equipment, especially the echocardiogram, it’s movable so that it can go up to the floors where people are sick so they don’t even have to come out of their hospital rooms and we can also use it on people who are sick in the emergency department.”

Queens General already has stress-testing equipment that involves patients using a treadmill to measure the heart’s response to physical activity.

But the new equipment uses a stationary bike to measure the response of your lungs as well. Internal medicine specialist Dr. Jeff Ratushny, who is based in Bridgewater, has a special interest in pulmonary stress testing, Doucet said.

“So this is an upgrade on our stress-testing equipment to add the pulmonary component to it. And that was really because Dr. Rathushny has a special interest in that. For our health professionasl that we have here, we want to give them the equipment that they need and that they want to give them the ability to come here and stay.”

The echocardiogram cost $275,000, while the exercise testing equipment cost $93,000. Those were just two of the significant contributions to health care in Queens County made by the foundation in the past year.

It has donated more than $1 million for equipment, training and other things to help attract more health professionals to the area and to make health care more accessible locally. 

“Our mandate does not confine us to just the hospital. But everything that we look at it’s in the lens of how can we make this a better place to live for people, how can we make it the best place for care, how can we put the best equipment in that we can retain professionals that are coming to work here.”

The foundation is also contributing $725,000 toward the establishment of a new MRI machine at South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater. 

And Doucet said they’re investing up to $3.5 million in a new CT scanner at Queens General. He said they’re working with Nova Scotia Health to recruit the technicians to staff that equipment properly.

The foundation relies on donations and investments to fund its work. Doucet said its volunteer board of trustees is concerned about financing projects big and small.

Whether that’s a new floor-cleaning machine, doing things to help staff morale or sprucing up the outside of the hospital with art and gardens, he said it’s all part of making Queens General a better place to work and visit.

“There’s very few hospitals that you’ll see flowers that are blooming at the front door. So we want to make the hospital not so clinical and not so sterile. We want it to be an inviting place so that it reduces the anxiety people have as they come in.”

Doucet said the foundation has helped recruit six physicians to the area in the past two years. And thanks to things like their online presence, they’re also attracting other professionals like nurses to the area.

But he said there’s more to do. That’s why they continue to recruit with the goal of having the Queens General ER return to being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The way it used to be when I was practising and the way it is now, things have definitely changed and we have to adapt to it. So having the foundation makes it at least easier for us to do that.”

For more information on the Queens General Hospital Foundation, visit their website at qghfoundation.ca, or their medical recruitment site at doctors-wanted.ca.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below

Sandra Porter-Lowe, Terri Longmire and Meredith Innes are three of the more than 100 volunteers at the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in Liverpool this week. (Rick Conrad)

To put on a big event like the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in a small community like Liverpool takes a lot of volunteers.

Organizers have recruited more than 100 people from Queens County and elsewhere to help put on the week-long event, which wrap up with the final draw on Saturday at 2 p.m. 

QCCR spoke to some of the people making sure the curling trials at Queens Place Emera Centre run smoothly.

Listen to the story below

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Shelley Walker is Queens County’s senior safety co-ordinator. (Rick Conrad)

Queens County could be getting a full-time seniors’ advocate by the end of the year.

At a recent regional council meeting, councillors voted to ask for a staff report on making the senior safety co-ordinator a full-time position with the Region of Queens.

Right now, that job is overseen by the non-profit Queens Care Society.

It is funded with a $25,000 grant from the Nova Scotia government, which is enough for three days a week. The society also receives $5,000 from the Region of Queens. The Queens District RCMP gives in-kind supports such as a cell phone and office space.

The society says it doesn’t have enough money to turn it into a full-time position. Shelley Walker is the current senior safety co-ordinator. There has been a part-time co-ordinator in the region since it was created more than 15 years ago.

The co-ordinator helps promote senior health, safety and independence, working with older residents to help them stay in their own homes. The co-ordinator helps with medical referrals, transportation, food insecurity and other concerns of seniors living on their own.

Representatives from the Queens Care Society appealed to councillors last week to make it a full-time position with the region.

Grant Webber, chairman of the society, told councillors that there’s great demand for the free service. But the current part-time position can help only about 7.5 per cent, or 250, of the 3,300 Queens County residents over 65.

He said other senior safety co-ordinators around the province are full time, supported by the province, municipalities or non-profit groups.

Webber asked that the region hire the co-ordinator on a full-time basis, covering benefits and expenses and providing office space.

“A part-time position is not enough to address the assistance and does not enable the co-ordinator to be proactive with education and check-in calls. All other co-ordinators in Nova Scotia are full time and either employed by the municipality or through foundations.

“We are hoping that the Region of Queens can also become the employer and provide the senior safety co-ordinator with the stability required to support seniors here in Queens County.”

Al Doucet, a member of the Queens Care Society, said Walker does a commendable job now for seniors in the region. He said she could do so much more as a full-time employee of the region.

“I’ve watched what Shelley does for this community,” he told councillors. “There’s all kinds of people that would do this, but I can tell you that Shelley does beyond what is needed.” 

Councillors seemed receptive to the idea of bringing the position under the municipality’s umbrella.

Mayor Darlene Norman said the part-time position is funded until the end of the year, but that there is some uncertainty around whether it would continue after that.

Norman said the details would have to be worked out.

“I believe it is necessary that there be more investigation to determine who such a staffer would report to, is there a requirement to do a job posting, … salary range, things such as cars, all those things we would have to know to responsibly vote on those things.”

District 3 Coun. Maddie Charlton said she wanted to make sure that councillors got a staff report in time to make a decision about the position before the end of the year.

“I want to make sure that that position is protected and it’s not a bunch of frantic, going around trying to figure out last-minute, so I think we need some clear timing.”

Norman made a motion for staff to report by council’s first meeting in October on the municipality taking over responsibility for the senior safety program.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Property map of proposed triplex development. Photo Region of Queens agenda

Most of the units in a proposed Beach Meadows triplex will be reserved for long-term renters.

The developers, Albert and Paula Doucet asked Region of Queens to issue a development agreement permitting all three planned units, to be used for short-term rentals.

The proponents wanted the property zoning changed from Hamlet Residential (HR) to Hamlet Core (HC) to allow the rentals.

During a public hearing held ahead of the last Region of Queens council meeting, residents spoke overwhelmingly in favour of maintaining the current planning rules which limits the number of short-term rentals to one.

Mayor Darlene Norman says the residents who spoke were passionate about keeping their community residential.

“And they see the possibility of three short-term rental units as the demise or negative to their residential way of life in that community.”

After a discussion, a majority of council agreed that the area is residential and should remain so.

They voted to maintain the status quo and allow one short-term and two long-term rentals on the property.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.

Queens General Hospital. Photo Ed Halverson

Difficulty attracting new doctors is one of the factors that contributed to the closures experienced by the Queens General Hospital Emergency department over the past couple of weeks.

This was the first time since the hospital opened a doctor couldn’t be found to work the shift.

But chair of the Queens General Hospital Foundation Al Doucet says the issue extends beyond the emergency room.

“The problem is that there’s not enough supply of health professionals and that’s just not physicians. It’s nurses, it’s CNAs, it’s LPNs, it’s lab technologists, it’s across the board,” said Doucet. “To look after our population that is aging, we have not been able to keep up the supply of health professions that are needed.”

Doucet has been recruiting doctors to Queens for the better part of 40 years and says the pandemic has thrown a wet blanket on their efforts.

“One of the things you do with recruiting, you want to bring people into the communities so they get a feel of where they would want to move and work, and with COVID, we couldn’t do that,” said Doucet. “We couldn’t bring people in, so for almost two years, it’s really stymied our recruitment abilities.”

Doucet says overall, the provincial healthcare system is struggling to keep up with demand, and because so many Nova Scotians don’t have access to primary care, they are now turning to the emergency room for treatment. But many general practitioners who take shifts in the ER find it difficult to then spend the day seeing patients in the office.

“In the past the emergency departments used to be seen more for just emergencies, so the people manning it could at least get a rest while they were doing it then have an office the next day. That can’t happen anymore,” said Doucet. “Our emergency departments are pretty steady because people don’t have family doctors so they have no other option but to go to the emergency department.”

Doucet has also seen a shift in the way medical schools train doctors.

He would like to see those schools return to the methods he was taught, where doctors were trained as generalists before deciding to move into a specialty.

“One of the good things about that was, that the specialists that came from that kind of a training environment understood what it was like to work in family practice, understood what it was like to have people referred to them. They had a much broader understanding so they didn’t become very narrow in their scope of practice. They looked at the patient more as a whole,” said Doucet.

He says the problems with the healthcare system are complex and likens the situation to a pyramid, with primary care as the base and other specialized care piled on top.

“In the last eight years I don’t think the emphasis has been on the bottom of that pyramid. There’s been a lot of emphasis on other things and those other things are important, I don’t minimize that,” said Doucet. “But fixing the bottom of that pyramid in the last eight years has not been the primary focus and I think that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in now.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.