Nova Scotia's primary care waitlist drops below 100,000

Taryn Grant · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 12, 2025 3:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

The database of radical looking for a superior attraction supplier successful Nova Scotia shrank, erstwhile again, past month.

Nova Scotia Health removed 8,449 radical from the Need a Family Practice Registry successful February, bringing the full down to 95,875 — oregon astir 9 per cent of the population. The provincial authorities says it's aiming to get the fig down to 5 per cent, oregon astir 50,000 people.

The latest numbers were issued Wednesday successful a quality merchandise from the wellness authority. The merchandise did not supply a breakdown of however galore radical person been attached to superior attraction providers successful the past month, nor did it accidental however galore were removed from the database done an ongoing validation process.

Nova Scotia Health has been calling radical connected the database since past summertime to find retired if they inactive request a provider. 

The list — which immoderate radical look to arsenic an indicator of however good the health-care strategy is working — is astatine its lowest constituent since 2022. It reached a highest of astir 160,000 past June earlier the wellness authority stopped posting updates online.

Public updates successful the signifier of quality releases resumed respective months later, and the size of the database has been shrinking ever since. The updates see the existent tally and alteration from the period prior, but they nary longer incorporate the level of detail they antecedently did, specified arsenic the request for a household signifier breached down by community.

WATCH| N.S. wellness curate defends removing doc waitlist data:

The alteration has drawn disapproval from the opposition, who accidental the regularisation of nationalist reporting makes it hard to measure whether existent advancement is being made.

Last month, the wellness authorization removed each registry accusation from its information reporting website, and Health Minister Michelle Thompson said that's however it volition stay astatine slightest until the wellness authority's validation is complete.

She provided nary timeline for the enactment and would not perpetrate to restoring the accusation connected the online information dashboard.