Jennifer DeCoste says she felt it was urgent to get her results after a second mammogram last month at St. Mary’s Regional Hospital. Martha’s in Antigonish, followed by an unexpected breast ultrasound the same day. She says the ultrasound technician told her to call the Nova Scotia Breast Screening Clinic in 48 hours for her results. But DeCoste says the clinic told her they couldn’t share her results over the phone and that she would have to go through a doctor. “I explained, I don’t have a doctor. There’s no one to call,” said DeCoste, who lost her family doctor when she moved out of state last year. She says a walk-in clinic wasn’t an option because there isn’t one in her area that allows orphaned patients to book appointments directly. The emergency room wasn’t an option because it could mean waiting for hours, DeCoste says. “Let’s say it was 10, 12 hours. The breast screening clinic would have closed by the time a doctor arrived to make that call, so it doesn’t even seem like a viable option.”
“No health care”
After worrying about how she would get her test results, DeCoste says her husband remembered the Maple app. Maple is a pay-per-use virtual care application available in Canada. DeCoste says she was connected and had an appointment with a Nova Scotia-based doctor within days. “I never talked to someone, and it was $50 just for the consultation. And we texted back and forth for 20 minutes. This person made a phone call, got the results, sent it back to me, and it was really cold,” DeCoste said. . “I felt like there was no care in health care.” DeCoste declined to talk about the results of her tests, but says it’s for additional testing. She says no questions about her health have been answered yet.
Nova Scotia Health standardization process
Nova Scotia Health sent a statement to CBC saying patients in the eastern zone are getting a phone call about non-urgent results. “For critical results (urgent or urgent) patients will usually receive a phone call very soon after the study review and will usually be directed to an emergency department.” The health authority says it continues to work to strengthen and standardize its approaches across the province. He also says that a new process was recently implemented in St. Martha’s and ensure staff know how to communicate with patients. He says a private clinic in Antigonish became a Nova Scotia Health primary care clinic in June. “Currently, this clinic only takes appointments for emergency department referrals, diagnostic imaging, women’s and children’s health, oncology and virtual care Nova Scotia. Appointments cannot be booked directly and there are no regular appointments.”
“It’s not a new problem”
DeCoste says she understands Nova Scotia Health is working on new ways to communicate with non-adherent patients, but said it’s not a new problem. “As it continues to get worse with physician retirements and emigration, policy changes are not keeping pace with the needs of patients,” he told the CBC via text message. He says the only clinic in Antigonish still requires a non-urgent trip to the ER for a referral. “This drives us back to fee-for-service models with the Maples app as the only option for most unadherent rural patients. Those without the financial means continue to lack access to care.” MORE TOP STORIES
