{"id":464414,"date":"2022-06-17T16:33:19","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T13:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/im-on-a-waitlist-for-a-doctor-with-95000-nova-scotians\/"},"modified":"2022-06-17T16:33:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T13:33:19","slug":"im-on-a-waitlist-for-a-doctor-with-95000-nova-scotians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/im-on-a-waitlist-for-a-doctor-with-95000-nova-scotians\/","title":{"rendered":"#I&#8217;m on a waitlist for a doctor with 95,000 Nova Scotians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3e00560a4b0\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3e00560a4b0\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/im-on-a-waitlist-for-a-doctor-with-95000-nova-scotians\/#%E2%80%9CIm_on_a_waitlist_for_a_doctor_with_95000_Nova_Scotians%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;I&#8217;m on a waitlist for a doctor with 95,000 Nova Scotians&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CIm_on_a_waitlist_for_a_doctor_with_95000_Nova_Scotians%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;I&#8217;m on a waitlist for a doctor with 95,000 Nova Scotians&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                            More than one in ten people from the province are without a doctor. \u201cWatching my pre<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">script<\/a>ion run out feels like watching a time bomb ticking down,\u201d says Evelyn Hornbeck\n                        <\/div>\n<div>\n                                                                        <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the past five years, Canada\u2019s Maritime provinces have enjoyed a dramatic reversal of demographic fortune. Immigration has surged, and the outmigration of youth that long plagued the region has reversed. The pandemic accelerated the trend, but the turnaround began years prior, turning the East Coast into a hotbed of fast-growing cities.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But as with most booms, there\u2019s a dark side. In the Maritimes, all that growth has strained provincial health systems, which were already on unsteady footing. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the shortage of family-care providers.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Maritimes don\u2019t have the highest rate of residents without a primary-care provider\u2014that would be Quebec, followed by British Columbia. But they do have the highest rates of residents who report being unable to access care in a timely fashion, and the highest proportion of residents who are unable to find a doctor despite actively seeking one.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Evelyn Hornbeck, a 31-year-old Halifax resident, is among the 95,000 people currently on Nova Scotia\u2019s waitlist for a primary-care provider. This is her story.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve been lucky\u2014or at least luckier than many.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn 2008, I moved from Ottawa to Halifax for school. After I graduated, I was able to get a doctor in Halifax right away. There was a primary-care shortage even then, but my Nova Scotian<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0partner\u2019s doctor, who also took care of his whole family, took me as a patient. We were privileged to enjoy that arrangement for the next 12 years, even as many of our friends struggled to find care, and the health care crisis got worse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was always a gnawing sense of \u201cWhat if something happens to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">our<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> doctor?\u201d And then, one day last October, my mother-in-law texted my husband and said, \u201cIt looks like she\u2019s retiring.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>READ: Canadian paramedics are in crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I know doctors often struggle when they end their practice, and I don\u2019t think our doctor\u2019s abrupt retirement was in her plan. But all of us\u2014me, my husband, his 80-something grandmother and our entire family\u2014suddenly lost that connection to basic health services. We went on the waitlist for a new doctor right away, but there are nearly 100,000 people on it with us. We don\u2019t expect to find one soon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The anxiety around all this is intensified because I\u2019m on a controlled medication, which walk-in doctors are very reluctant to prescribe, and pharmacists <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can\u2019t<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> prescribe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My medical issues began a long time ago. There were lots of things that didn\u2019t quite add up for me\u2014things that I\u2019ve had trouble with and affected my quality of life. I began seeking treatment in 2019, but my family doctor never felt comfortable diagnosing me, or prescribing the psychiatric medication I required on her own. I had a therapist, who referred me to a different doctor who had some knowledge in this area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We spent a year or so trying a few different medications. Nothing quite worked, and I took a break to clear my head. Then that doctor was arrested for possession of child pornography. His practice closed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, I found another doctor and got a diagnosis and a prescription\u2014and suddenly things made sense. I was able to succeed at work and in my personal life. It was a situation where I had to be my own advocate\u2014the system was not making any of this any easier. I went from banging my head against a wall to feeling like a door was opening. A lot of people might have just given up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>MORE: A homeowner\u2019s worst nightmare<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The medication has made a huge difference in my life. Watching my prescription run out feels like watching a time bomb ticking down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be clear, my situation is far from the worst out there. But I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s especially important to highlight how difficult it is for a lot of people to access basic care. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">M<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">y husband and I have been married for five years, and we\u2019re thinking about family planning. But, unable to find a doctor, in a lot of ways we feel in limbo. I need a doctor; my mental health treatment and medication requires medical guidance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What am I supposed to do?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 As told to Matthew Halliday <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean<\/em>&#8216;s sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>, commentary and analysis.<\/p>\n<p>                <iframe style=\"display:none;width:0px;height:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/society\/health\/im-on-a-waitlist-with-nearly-100000-nova-scotians-who-need-a-doctor\/about:blank\" name=\"gform_ajax_frame_26\" id=\"gform_ajax_frame_26\" title=\"This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms.\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/society\/health\/im-on-a-waitlist-with-nearly-100000-nova-scotians-who-need-a-doctor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m on a waitlist for a doctor with 95,000 Nova Scotians&#8221; More than one in ten people from the province are without a doctor. \u201cWatching my prescription run out feels like watching a time bomb ticking down,\u201d says Evelyn Hornbeck In the past five years, Canada\u2019s Maritime provinces have enjoyed a dramatic reversal of demographic&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":464415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_4641-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2243,129351,5047,80445,129250,70989],"class_list":["post-464414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-doctors","tag-halifax","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-maritimes","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}