Nova Scotia needs to hire 100 doctors a year over the next 10 years, according to the province’s healthcare recruitment office. Community needs are evolving and doctors are retiring. Doctors Nova Scotia says its members have been under immense pressure for the past two years – constantly working and understaffed.

Nova Scotia’s health minister said Thursday a new pilot project that will permit some family doctors to be paid for the number of patients on their roster, not just for services provided, will help reduce the province’s nearly 95,000-person primary care wait list. 

We speak with Dr. Leisha Hawker is the President of Doctors Nova Scotia, to discuss the new payment model that family doctors are taking for a test drive, including at one family practice in Cheticamp.

Dr. Michel Chiasson is a family physician at the Cheticamp Medical Clinic. This is one of three test sites for the new blended capitation model to see whether a new payment model in Nova Scotia will pay off for doctors and patients.

We chat with Dr. Leisha Hawker, president of Doctors Nova Scotia, to get her thoughts on primary care reform, and discuss a new payment model for Nova Scotia doctors being tested this year.

Dr. Leisha Hawker had a busy first week as president of Doctors Nova Scotia. A family doctor based in Halifax, Hawker has been in practice for roughly a decade. She tells CityNews Halifax that over the years, she’s seen more and more of her colleagues struggling to keep up with the workload, something that hinders their ability to provide the high quality of care Nova Scotians deserve.

The Nova Scotia government is rolling out a pilot program to test a new way to pay family doctors, but opposition politicians are worried it doesn't go far enough fast enough. The government will use the blended capitation model until at least March 2023 to pay 19 doctors who work at three primary care clinics in Chéticamp, New Minas and Upper Tantallon. Three other clinics, which include an additional 30 doctors, could be added to the pilot.

We’re failing to fix the family doctor shortage in Nova Scotia. In fact, it’s getting worse. The latest orphan patient stats released this week show almost one in 10 of us — nearly 95,000 Nova Scotians — want but can’t find a family physician.

Dr. Hawker interview with CTV anchor Todd Battis, skip to 36:15

The wait–list for a primary care provider in Nova Scotia has risen to another record high as the new president of Doctors Nova Scotia says her tenure will target primary care reform. There are now 94,855 people registered to find a doctor or nurse practitioner, up from 91,964 last month. The new number represents about 9.5 per cent of the population. "The number is probably even higher," said Dr. Leisha Hawker, who started her one-year term this week leading the organization that advocates for doctors.