About 10 per cent of Nova Scotians are still looking for a family doctor or nurse practitioner. (Communications Nova Scotia)
More people are dropping off the Need a Family Practice Registry in Nova Scotia.
According to numbers released Tuesday by Nova Scotia Health, 9,200 people either found a doctor in the past month or were removed from the list.
Just over 110,000 Nova Scotians are still looking for a primary care provider. That’s down from more than 119,670 on Dec. 4. About 10.5 per cent of the population does not have reliable access to primary care.
Nova Scotia Health officials have been contacting people on the list to confirm they still need a doctor or nurse practitioner.
Health officials stopped providing breakdowns by region last summer. The last update in June showed that about 10 per cent of Queens County residents were still looking for a doctor or nurse practitioner.
Nova Scotia Health staff are calling people on the need-a-family-practice registry to make sure they still need a primary care provider. (Pixabay)
A group of 40 student recruits has started calling Nova Scotians to see if they still need a family doctor.
And with more than 160,000 people across Nova Scotia on the need-a-family-practice registry, it’s going to be a busy summer.
Noella Whelan, the senior director of the primary care and chronic disease management network for Nova Scotia Health, is heading up the project.
She said the department did a similar telephone campaign last summer, when more than 152,000 were on the list. That resulted in more than 21,000 people identified who could be struck from the waitlist. It also resulted in 6,000 people being assigned a primary care provider.
“Our systems are not automated so it relies on the individuals that put their name on the list to take their names off the list,” she told QCCR.
“This is a more proactive mechanism for us to reach out to individuals and determine if they have already been connected to a primary care practice in Nova Scotia. And so often we do find that there are individuals that have been connected to a primary care provider who are still on the list.”
Whelan said they doubled the number of temporary staff making calls this summer, from 20 last year. She said there are about 10 other permanent Nova Scotia Health employees on the project in supervisory and co-ordinator roles. Hiring the student recruits will cost about $532,000, according to a Nova Scotia Health spokeswoman.
“We have heard from patients and families the concern about where to go for care,” Whelan said. “So we want to make sure we’re connecting with folks to understand, do they need a primary care provider? Do we have their contact information so that when we reach out to them do we have accurate information? … Out of the campaign last summer there were a number of tools developed to help individuals understand where to go for care. We just want to make sure that those that are waiting know where to access care.”
Operators will also be confirming with people whether their doctor has retired. Whelan says the department doesn’t always know if a general practitioner has retired.
“We want to make sure we’ve confirmed that and are able to then connect them to a primary care provider when one becomes available.”
Whelan says the project will also give Nova Scotia Health a chance to tell people where else they can access care while they wait for a doctor or nurse practitioner. Staff will also remind people to fill out the health questionnaire on the need-a-family-practice registration site. People can also use that form to remove themselves from the registry.
“I think it is money well spent. Certainly we’ve heard from the public, from patients’ families that they want a more direct contact with the system to understand how to navigate services.”
Calls will show up as either unknown name and number or from a blocked caller.
Staff won’t ask for any personal information besides the last four digits of your Nova Scotia health card and your birth date.
They will also ask for confirmation of your phone number and physical and email addresses.
“If they do receive a call and they are not able to respond, if we have their email on file, we’ll send them an email, and say, ‘We’ve attempted to call you, please call us back. Or we’ll make a call at this time during the next day or so.’ That way, Nova Scotians will know this is a legitimate initiative.”
Whelan said in the first week of calls, they haven’t had many people refuse to answer to give information.
“The students are just in a week or so of calls, so most folks are engaging in conversation and able to verify it is Nova Scotia Health calling. We certainly do have a few (refusals), but we expect that anyway.”
Nova Scotia Health will be calling people over the next several weeks to verify that they’re still looking for a primary care provider. (Pixabay)
If you’re one of the 1,100 people in Queens County still looking for a primary care provider, you may be getting a call from Nova Scotia Health.
Officials will be phoning people on the need-a-family-practice registry over the next several weeks to confirm whether they’re still looking for a doctor or nurse practitioner.
According to a release from Nova Scotia Health, people will be called from either a blocked number, one they don’t recognize or an unknown name and number.
Staff won’t ask you to provide any personal information besides the last four digits of your Nova Scotia health card and your birth date.
They will also ask for confirmation of your phone number and physical and email addresses.
According to the news release, this is so that the department can contact people when a doctor or nurse practitioner is available to take new patients.
Health staff will also be calling people who added their name to the list because their provider told them they’d be retiring. This is to confirm whether their doctor retired.
The registry hasn’t been updated since June 1. According to CBC News, opposition politicians this week accused the government of withholding up-to-date numbers on how many people still need a doctor or nurse practitioner.
As of June 1, 160,234 Nova Scotians were still on the registry. About 10 per cent of Queens County residents are still looking for a primary care provider. That compares to about 23 per cent of the population in the Bridgewater area.
QCCR will have an interview on Friday with Noella Whalen, the senior director of the primary care and chronic disease management network with Nova Scotia Health. Whalen is leading the project.
