"When I say 'this team will fix the healthcare crisis,' I mean it."
Tim Houston, August 17, 2021
(Election Day)
"Yeah. Fix is a very subjective word."
Tim Houston, April 22, 2022,
"...we were also clear that it would probably get worse before it gets better."
Tim Houston, June 16, 2022
For certain, Tim Houston nailed the last one. Things have gotten worse.
Things have gotten much worse.
One of Houston's first acts in making things worse was to fire the physician CEO and 14 volunteer-members of the board of directors of Nova Scotia Health and replace them with long-time PC party faithful, Karen Oldfield, a lawyer with zero healthcare experience as "interim" CEO. Firing the doctor CEO cost Nova Scotians $400,000. That’s approximately one year’s salary for 1.5 physicians or five nurses.
More than a year later Oldfield is still “interim” CEO. In an interview with the CBC, Oldfield stated that "while she may not have a health-care background, she came into her job with the experience of caring for a husband who requires regular trips to the hospital for dialysis and other treatments."
How the reporter kept a straight face is a mystery. Saying you're qualified to run the provincial healthcare system because you've helped someone else use it is like saying you know how to run a restaurant because you've taken your kids to Wendy's a bunch of times.
I donated a kidney to one sibling and held medical power of attorney for another. I, too, have spent endless hours in hospital, but in terms of work experience, that doesn't make me qualified to be a receptionist in a doctor's office, let alone a senior healthcare official.
Oldfield said, "I have lived this system for a long time. I know the technology problems.
"I know when the parking [garage] arm doesn't go up. I know when the parking lot hasn't been plowed … I want nothing more than to get some of this stuff fixed."
Respectfully, Karen, there are bigger problems afoot here than hospital parking lots. You are one of them. You didn’t get to be CEO because of your prowess in healthcare administration obtained by osmosis, you are there precisely because you’re not a physician and you’ll do exactly what you’re told.
That said, Oldfield is just a spy in the ointment. The biggest problem is that there’s not nearly enough ointment. In June 2021, 66,404 Nova Scotians needed a doctor. Today, 116,000 Nova Scotians need one. That’s one-in-10 Nova Scotians who are either clogging up our ERs, lurking like scavengers outside our remaining walk-in clinics trying to beat the daily cutoff, or forgoing care all together.
One thing that the majority of Nova Scotians without doctors aren't doing is using VirtualCareNS that was touted as an interim solution. With 150-200 virtual appointments a day–a maximum of 1,000 appointments a week–and a patient pool of 116,000, the odds of getting an appointment are slimmer than getting tickets to see Shania Twain.
Having repeatedly tried to book a virtual care appointment without success, I emailed VirtualCareNS this morning to ask what time of day appointments are made available. The only response I received was an auto-reply with a list of frequently asked questions, none of which explained when those 150-200 appointments are tossed to the physicianless masses every day.
The email did tell me to plan ahead and book in advance so my prescriptions don't run out. My wonderful former doctor, who closed her practice this July, prescribed me a year's worth of refills. Perhaps by the time those run out, I might be able to secure myself a virtual appointment. I will be long overdue for my yearly lady-parts examination by then. Maybe I should get one of those phones that folds in half for a more comfortable fit in case that appointment is conducted virtually too.
Update! VirtualCareNS email me back and it's absolute nonsense.
