A new collaborative care clinic expected to open next year in New Minas is receiving praise from Doctors Nova Scotia.

Valley Crossroads is expected to offer primary care as well as a number of services such as massage therapy, psychology and physiotherapy.

Physicians fed up with writing sick notes for employers are turning to a 12-year-old Doctors Nova Scotia form letter that bills the employer for the time it took to write the note and requests they change their policy on sick notes.

Dr. Gary Ernest, the president of Doctors Nova Scotia, said employers requiring employees to get sick notes for minor illnesses has been a problem for a long time.

The province's health minister says despite the lack of a public update on the physician resource plan since 2016, the work has never stopped.

Annual updates of the 10-year human resources outlook were posted online in 2014, 2015 and 2016, but there has been nothing added to the Health Department's website since then.