Why Cape Breton isn't getting a seniors' care program

The NDP is calling on Nova Scotia's Liberal government to offer an innovative seniors' care program in Cape Breton that is already offered in Halifax and Truro.

Care By Design was first implemented in the Capital District Health Authority in the summer of 2009. This nursing home model includes dedicated per-floor physicians with 24-hour on-call physician coverage. The on-site health-care team also includes nurses and paramedics.

Nova Scotia's Department of Health and Wellness intended to launch a pilot project in the Sydney area in 2015, but it never materialized.

'The Liberals dropped the ball'

"The Liberals dropped the ball," said Tammy Martin, NDP MLA for Cape Breton Centre.

"It's the same as the rest of the issues around health care. What the Liberals said they were going to do and what they actually did are two different things."

Martin worked at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital for almost 20 years in staffing and payroll.

The NDP received documents through an access to information request that showed the program was approved for Sydney by the Nova Scotia Health Authority, but was rejected by the Health Department.

The documents said the project was turned down by the Health Department because the program relies a lot on physicians, and trouble recruiting doctors to rural areas could complicate efforts to run the project.

The second reason is that the Health Department said the program would be "relatively expensive" for the health authority to manage.

The documents also show that Care by Design cost $633,000 and was running a deficit in Halifax and Truro in 2016. But the program was providing vastly superior patient care and there was a significant reduction in health-care spending because it reduced the number of ER transfers from nursing homes, the documents noted.

It's not clear how much the program would cost to run in Cape Breton.

Funding never came

"This would lessen the strain on emergency rooms," said Martin. "Seniors could have many medical issues that may not be urgent but need to be seen, so bringing the doctor to them cuts the traffic out of the ER."

Eight nursing homes in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality were identified as possible sites in the Care By Design business plan.

In January 2016, Susan Stevens, the senior director of continuing care at the Nova Scotia Health Authority, updated the officials in long-term care in an email that said "there would be no funding this year and they were planning to revise and submit the proposal for funding next year."

An NDP spokesperson said the access to information request revealed no further correspondence on the issue.

Report coming in the fall

Martin said it's time the Liberal government "stepped up to the plate" and brought the program to Cape Breton.

Nova Scotia's Department of Health and Wellness referred questions to the Nova Scotia Health Authority, which said it's developing a provincial approach to primary care in long-term care centres.

"We will soon invite long-term care homes and others (residents, families, physicians, etc.) to provide input into the planning process. We hope to have the provincial report completed this fall," Kristen Lipscombe, a spokesperson for the health authority, said in an email.

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