Healthcare, healthcare, healthcare: Tim Houston’s 2022 to-do list

Tim Houston campaigned on his promise to fix everything that ails our healthcare system. He won. He has put his own people in charge. Now he has to deliver. The good news is that 4,369 Nova Scotians found a primary care provider last month. The bad news is that 5,511 other Nova Scotians added their […]

Physician assistants? It shouldn’t be that hard. Really

The province has announced a pilot program to see if it’s safe to let physician assistants into our health care system. They already operate legally in much of the US, Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and in the Canadian military. So why just a modest pilot project? We’re glad you asked. A September announcement that the […]

When a healthcare crisis is an opportunity… for an “important milestone” moment photo-op

While our healthcare crises multiply, our leaders stage photo opportunities that resemble trying to slap Band-Aids on the backsides of rampaging elephants. Whatever happened to political leadership? So last week, 10 out of 37 hospital emergency departments in Nova Scotia were closed for at least some part of the week. The Musquodoboit Valley Memorial Hospital […]

Crisis? What crisis? Just a(nother) ‘new (lack of) direction’ for healthcare

Last week’s “mutual” firing of the province’s deputy health minister shows just how unwilling our premier is to acknowledge our healthcare crisis — let alone do something about it. Last week, when Premier Stephen McNeil “mutually” agreed to fire Denise Perret — the deputy minister of health he’d hired just two-and-a-half years ago — he […]