N.S. patients taken off doctor waitlist waiting months for appointment: opposition

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s opposition parties say they’re skeptical of the province’s shrinking family doctor waitlist as they hear from constituents who’ve been removed from the list only to wait months for access to primary care.

Nova Scotia Health is reporting that the list of residents in need of a family doctor or nurse practitioner has dropped to 93,700 as of April 1, down from the 104,300 people on Feb. 15.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said she’s heard from people who have been taken off the list and offered primary care, only to be stuck in limbo waiting for the designated clinic to reach out to them.

“People are worried about being removed from the list and still not having the access to care they need,” Chender said in an email Tuesday.

Liberal House leader Iain Rankin said last week he’s heard the same thing, which he said makes him skeptical about the new wait-list numbers. “It’s hard to know what’s going on with that whole fiasco in the list,” he said.

Nova Scotia Health said it didn’t know how many people are waiting for a clinic to contact them after they were offered a primary care provider. Neither Rankin nor Chender said how many constituents they believe are in that situation.

The NDP leader said it’s worrying that the provincial government cannot provide a clear picture of how many Nova Scotians continue to wait for a family doctor or nurse practitioner. “We have no way of fully understanding if (these reports) are an accurate reflection of what’s going on,” Chender said.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson said after a cabinet meeting last week it will take “a period of time” for a patient to book an appointment after they are officially offered a primary care provider and removed from the wait-list. The time between the initial offer and patient intake will depend on the capacity of the clinic, Thompson said.

“It’s very hard to take on a thousand patients in a short period of time,” adding that there is a “rapid onboarding” team that is working with clinics to help them register new patients.

For those who are stuck in limbo, Thompson said they can continue to use virtual care, mobile primary care clinics or pharmacy clinics.

“To folks who are in that position … really leverage those points of access. They know that attachment is pending, they have been connected to a clinic, in some case they may want to phone that clinic,” Thompson said.

An email on April 15 from Nova Scotia Health to a patient who had been waiting since November for their new clinic to contact them says it “may be longer than a few months” before the clinic makes contact.

In an email on Nov. 24 to the same patient, the agency says, “please do not contact the clinic yourself.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2025.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press