NDP to work with Doctors NS to fix health care crisis

106,000 Nova Scotians without family doctor

HALIFAX – Today, NDP Leader Gary Burrill furthered the NDP’s commitment to work with doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses to fix the province’s health care crisis by proposing solutions, such as accepting the recommendations of Doctors NS in Fixing Nova Scotia’s Primary Health Care Problem.

“Stephen McNeil promised to make the challenges in our health care system better, but instead, he just made them worse,” said Burrill. “We need health care that’s better for doctors and better for families. Going to the doctor should not feel like being on an assembly line and our doctors should not feel like they don’t have the proper resources to do their job.”

To fix our health care system, an NDP government will:

• Accept the recommendations of Doctors NS’ recent position paper on Fixing Nova Scotia’s Primary Health Care Problem
• Work together with our health care system and Doctors NS to implement a blended payment model for physicians;
• Require the DHW and NSHA, along with physician recruiters and the Dalhousie Medical School, to work with Doctors NS to develop a recruitment and retention strategy;
• Support family physicians in implementing same-day/next-day access in their practices;
• Work with physicians so that they are given the opportunity to choose what type of practice they want to work in.

“There are 106,000 people in Nova Scotia who do not have a family doctor and the doctor shortage will continue to worsen unless we make the proper investments,” added Burrill. “We’ve heard from both doctors and patients that there’s a better way, and the NDP is more than willing to work together in order to get there.”

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