The list of Nova Scotia residents waiting to be matched with a GP has reached a new all-time high. It has 137,587 names, the provincial health agency said on Friday.
This equates to almost 14% of the province’s population. Entry in this list of provinces is not automatic; You have to register (New window) and the government notifies residents when they can be brought together with a GP in their area. In the summer of 2022, it had exceeded 100,000 names for the first time.
According to this latest health agency statistic, 2,469 people’s names were removed from the list last month.
On the other hand, 6461 people were added in the same period.
So that’s an increase of 3,992 people.
In the central region of the province alone – which includes the most populous region, Halifax – the list contains 4.7% more names than in the previous month.
According to Statistics Canada, Nova Scotia’s population grew 3.2% over the past year and 8.1% over the past five years, reaching 1,030,953 people in the last quarter of 2022 (New window).
We also find that 35% of people who have been waitlisted in the last month gave the reason that they recently arrived in their area.
More than 25% said they had recently lost their GP because the doctor closed their office or moved. More than 15% said their doctor had retired, and another 15% said their doctor announced they were about to retire.
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