Hospital bracing for loss of Doctor

Shelburne’s access to primary care was stretched tight long before Shelburne physician Mohammad Alzrighe closed his local practice leaving thousands of patients without a Doctor. This added pressure will be felt in all corners of the health care system for the county. “With two vacancies in the Shelburne area, several thousand will be left without a physician,” said Communications Director Barbara Johnson for South West Health. “That is a concern when we look at what a physician offers…screening, wellness and maintaining individual health…so access to primary care is very important.”

Orphaned patients will have no other choice but to turn to the already strained Emergency Department (ED) at Roseway Hospital to use for their everyday physician needs and prescription refills.

They should expect to have long waits, explained Johnson, because there will be more urgent emergencies that need the attention of the physicians and nurses.

The ED will be missing Dr. Lewis as well; as she has been part of the rotation of physicians covering, the ED shifts. The expected added patients and shortage of yet another physician is bound to fill up the ED waiting room.

There have already been three gaps in the ED schedule involving two 12-hour and one 24-hour shift expected in the coming months up until May.

But Roseway is hoping to avoid a closure by picking up locum coverage from other community physicians willing to fill in.

Roseway will be one locum doctor short as Dr. Benny prepares to leave on her maternity.

Both South West Health and representatives of Roseway Hospital hope to attract new physicians to the area through two upcoming recruitment fairs in Halifax and Montreal. They have been attempting to recruit physicians to the area since Dr. Alzrighe left but without success.

Johnson explained that most of the time successfully recruiting involves matching physicians to a place that fit their lifestyle and community needs as well as how tempting the incentive packages are. “Although recruitment is not all about the money it can sometimes help in conjunction with the benefits of a lifestyle in a community,” said Johnson.

Johnson explained other ideas that South West Health hopes to explore in the future to alleviate the heavy patient load for physicians. “We are interested in developing teams where we can look at other health care providers to service people,” she said. “In a lot of cases there are health issues, education and screening that can be supported by other health professionals to help take pressure off the Physicians and Nurse Practitioners.”

Johnson points out that relatively there have been few closures at Roseway Hospital. “That speaks to a very small number of physicians who are doing an incredible job of covering the ED,” she explained. “They are doing numerous shifts a month and it’s a credit to that group that we are having as few closures as we are…and that is on top of a very busy practice.”

But with the added pressure, there is only so much a small group of Physicians can do without the risk of losing them as well to greener pastures and Johnson explained that they hope to recruit as soon as possible so that another Physician or two can take part in the rotation.

The problems Roseway Hospital is facing is congruent with the Provincial Governments scrutiny of rural ED’s in the province and their sustainability but Johnson is not worried. “Another ED in our district, Digby Hospital, has had an even tougher issue of maintaining a regular schedule than Roseway,” she said. “I think there is nothing to fear for Roseway.”