Winterdiva

How do you find the healthcare situation there? I understand it'll be a while before I find a family doctor. Until then, what do you do when the kids get ill? Is there an equivalent of our 111 service or out of hours GP?

9/10 times, my kids get ill after 7pm !!!

christmasoompa

Recent thread here that may be useful if you've not seen it - Nova Scotia Healthcare

HTH.

Winterdiva

Thank you.

Silverdragon102

Big gp shortage in NS. There are walk in clinics or wait in emerg which many have to do if they require medication refills never mind if ill

scilly

We were in the Halifax region over Christmas and there were several stories about Emergency being closed for several hours or days at a time because they couldn't get enough doctors to keep them open.

Many Emergency rooms, especially in smaller places but also in the bigger cities, depend on family doctors to do rotation work in them.

People do struggle to find GPs .............. but that is a problem in many provinces, including here in BC. My daughter was lucky, she started going to the Student Health Clinic when she was at Dalhousie, found a doctor she liked, stuck with him through most of her time there, then managed to get on his list when he moved from there to his own practice. He referred her to another family doctor when she was pregnant though as he didn't "do" pregnancies. He does seem really good though, the whole family are now on his list, and he saw the child at short notice on Christmas Eve.


So, in short, in many places Emergency might not be an option. Family doctors (as well as specialists) are in short supply. I don't know about Walk-in Clinics.

It might be worth asking if there is a phone-in nurse line where you can get advice on what to do, do you really need to go to Emergency, etc.

This is a toll-free 811 number in BC that operates 24/7 365 days a year, as a service for people living here, and I know quite a few people have found it very useful.