Article content“There is a multi-pronged approach to reducing wait times for patients at Cobequid. This includes a focus on reducing ambulance offload times, monitoring patients while they wait, as well as efficiently triaging patients in the emergency department using a new pilot program.Article content“We also now have unprecedented awareness of every hospital bed in the system. This real-time assessment of bed occupancy allows us to quickly ensure when one person is discharged from hospital another patient is right there, ready to be admitted.”Article contentElliott said it was important to note that if someone is in critical need of care at an emergency department, they will be seen.Article content“Our emergency department system is based on a triage approach, where the most serious patients are seen first.”Article contentThe Cobequid Health Centre has an overarching goal to improve flow through the department for all patients with a new model called Fast Track, said Elliott.Article contentArticle contentThere is an area in the Cobequid emergency department staffed by two nurse practitioners who see less serious patients, he said. They are pulled from the overall stream of patients waiting in the emergency department and are cared for separately in five spaces.Article contentPROMISES MADEArticle contentThe NDP asked about the Cobequid Community Health Centre during budgetary estimates in March 2023, and the minister of health said that the government was planning to expand the health centre with inpatient beds as well as a 24-hour emergency department.Article contentBut no plans have been put forward, said Chender.Article content“The Houston government has promised repeatedly an expansion of the Cobequid Community Health Centre,” said Chender.Article content“A year after that promise was made, the minister of health doubled down about plans to expand the Cobequid, something this community has been pushing for a very long time. Unfortunately, families in Sackville are still waiting for the Houston government to keep this province.”Article contentArticle contentAbout 150 patients visit the the Cobequid emergency department daily.Article content“Nova Scotians were promised a health-care system they could rely on,” said Wilson, who was a doctor at the original Cobequid facility. “Instead, wait times across the province are horrific, patients are in pain for hours, and staff are struggling because they can’t give people the care they know they deserve.”Article contentAccording to Nova Scotia Health data, from June 1, 2024 to today, the Cobequid Community Health Centre is the third busiest emergency department in the province, behind the Halifax Infirmary and Valley Regional Hospital.Article content“Its value to the people of Nova Scotia can’t be overstated,” said Wozney. “It matters to Sackville, but to Bedford, to Dartmouth, people come in from the Valley and Colchester down towards Truro. This is a critical health care facility and the fact that you have staff who are trying to find ways to not work here, because it is an untenable situation, should be of grave concern to the minister.”
NDP wants government to make good on expansion of Cobequid Community Health Centre
