For 36 hours, Liz LeClair suffered through excruciating abdominal pain and vomiting in her home in Dartmouth, N.S., with no ambulance coming to help. Her ordeal is just one example of how Canada's health care system, hugely overburdened and struggling amid worker shortages, needs desperate attention, experts say.

Long wait times, closed emergency departments and growing waitlists for family doctors have exposed the pressures facing the health-care system this summer – specifically on emergency medicine.

It's expected all Nova Scotians will have access to VirtualCareNS by the end of August. Dr. Leisha Hawker, Doctors Nova Scotia shares why the program is essential. (Scroll to hour 3)

In addition to being the mayor of Amherst, David Kogon also happens to be a retired physician who continues to practice and do surgeries across the border in New Brunswick. Kogon says with private health-care clinics already making their way into Nova Scotia and other provinces like Quebec, a two-tiered system is likely the solution to the current health-care crisis.

Dr. Leisha Hawker, President of Doctors Nova Scotia, joins Todd to talk about how Covid-19 cases increasing is adding stress to Maritime hospitals. (scroll to hour 3)

One week after the public learned Dr. Kevin Orrell has left his job as CEO of the Office of Professional Healthcare Recruitment, the doctor and the Houston government are both refusing to say anything at all about the circumstances around his departure. “There are no updates to provide at this time,” said Khalehla Perreault, senior communications advisor for the Department of Health and Wellness.

The number of people with COVID-19 in Maritime hospitals this summer continues to climb, with more week-to-week increases in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The extra care required for hospital patients infected with COVID-19 has been adding weight to an already stressed health-care system.

There are plenty of walk-in clinics in the Halifax area, but finding one that isn't already filled up is becoming more of a problem. “I've even experienced it myself over the Canada Day weekend,” said Leisha Hawker, president of Doctors Nova Scotia. She says walk-in clinics, on average, are turning away more people than they're able to book appointments for.