New doctors recruited for Ocean View

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

South West Health has so far successfully recruited two new doctors for the Ocean View Family Practice, located in the Yarmouth Regional Hospital.

One physician is due to arrive in December, the other is coming in January. They will replace three doctors that are moving out of Ocean View to relocate to a new clinic in Yarmouth’s downtown.

“There will be a period of orientation and details will be announced as to when the Ocean View Family Practice will reopen and the process for taking new patients,” says health district spokesperson Barb Johnson.

She says people can expect to see these details advertised in the New Year.

“Preference will be given to people who are without a family physician,” she says. “They have started compiling a waiting list as people call looking for a physician and to date there are approximately 250 names on the waiting list for the new practice.”

The first time the family practice accepted new patients, the health district had decided on a lottery as a means for accepting new patients. But the number of people that applied was such that the family practice was able to accommodate everyone so a lottery was never held.

Johnson says the health district has no firm figure of how many people in the region are still without a family physician. The only way to know would be to conduct a survey.

“We know that Ocean View took on 1,500 patients initially and in that time they have continued to take on more patients. As well, two other physicians have expanded their practices,” Johnson says. “From a district perspective, the largest group of people without a family physician are in the Digby area.”

But Johnson does say since the establishment of the Ocean View Family Practice they have seen a positive impact on the number of people reporting ‘no family physician’ when visiting the Yarmouth Regional Hospital emergency department.

“Although the emergency department is still very busy, there has been a decrease in the number of patients visiting the ER thanks to the Ocean View Family Practice,” she says, adding people still turn to the ER when they can’t get in to see their physician as quickly as they feel they need to.

Johnson adds that while preference for the new doctors coming in will be given to people without a family physician, if space is available afterwards others can also apply. For instance, patients of Ocean View now who would prefer to stay at the hospital setting instead of relocating to the new downtown clinic.