A newly settled permanent resident in Nova Scotia says a recent experience he had in a Halifax ER is proof the overburdened healthcare system is straining its workers to the breaking point. Originally from the United States, Doug Silverman is a registered clinical psychologist with a doctorate under his belt, granting him the privilege of using the title.

The president of Doctors Nova Scotia hopes changes to emergency care will lead to significant improvements in the province’s emergency departments, but says it's also important to continue focusing on bolstering primary care. Dr. Leisha Hawker’s comments are in response to a government announcement to alleviate pressure on emergency departments in Nova Scotia, following the recent deaths of two people who waited hours for care.

Residents of a rural part of the Halifax municipality are concerned after learning the emergency department at their hospital would be closed for the entire month of January. “Everybody’s concerned, because we are a large geographic area,” says Janice Christie, a long-time resident of Sheet Harbour, N.S. “So somebody that lives 30 to 40 minutes east, in an emergency, if they come up on their own, that’s still a 40 minute drive, with an emergency.”

Tim Houston campaigned on a promise that he would solve the province’s primary care shortage. It hasn’t worked.

The head of emergency medicine for Halifax and the surrounding area says ERs are under the most extreme pressure that he’s seen in his 23-year career, and he says it’s taking a toll on patients and health-care workers. Emergency medicine is in a state of “crisis” amid a shortage of nurses, physicians and hospital beds, and with a rise in patients with complex needs, Dr. Kirk Magee, chief of the central zone’s network of emergency departments, said in an interview Thursday.

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