Nova ScotiaConcerns about the clinic’s future were raised earlier this year when appointments at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre weren’t booked past September. Nova Scotia Health said the clinic’s care providers, not the health authority, decided to cancel appointments.Independent MLA says patients being denied care is ‘deplorable’ and ‘criminal’Luke Ettinger · CBC News · Posted: Dec 11, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Patients of a pain clinic at Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre protested in September and again in October. (Luke Ettinger/CBC)Nova Scotia Health says it’s committed to pain clinic services in Amherst, but for the better part of three months, patients have gone without care.Concerns about the clinic’s future were raised earlier this year when appointments at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre weren’t booked past September. Nova Scotia Health said the clinic’s care providers, not the health authority, decided to cancel appointments. The health authority and the doctors who provide the care have been at odds over the safety of a new space for some of the pain services in the centre.“We believe that the new space will allow for continued provision of a safe and quality pain service, and we have also offered the opportunity to continue using the former space for a transition period,” Nova Scotia Health spokesperson Jennifer Lewandowski said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we have not been able to come to an agreement on this with the doctors who provide the service,” she added. The health authority has declined repeated requests for an interview.Lewandowski said that’s because discussing details in public or through the media could jeopardize discussions with the doctors.Public meeting The clinic’s hiatus was a key issue at a public meeting hosted by Nova Scotia Health in Amherst last month. Oxford, N.S., resident Norma Stevens is among the patients who feel left in the dark and showed up to voice their frustrations. She has fibromyalgia and the associated pain was manageable with the care she received at the clinic.“I’m having an awful lot of trouble sleeping at night,” Stevens said. “I’ve missed two pain treatments, and I’m finding it hard to do much at all, to be honest.”Patients have previously protested the cancelled appointments. Now, some are considering legal action for their pain and suffering.’Criminal’Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin said patients are being denied access to basic care and in the meantime are suffering, which she calls “deplorable” and “criminal.” She said Nova Scotia Health has not offered a good explanation as to why they don’t trust the opinion of the care providers.“Usually, we don’t have health-care services because they don’t have physicians or health-care professionals to provide care. That’s not the case here,” Smith-McCrossin said.“I have people contacting me from all over Nova Scotia that are patients of this particular clinic. They travel from Barrington … Antigonish to come and see these experts,” she added.Smith-McCrossin said it has been impossible to get answers from the province. She said there is no other place for patients to go with years-long waitlists at other pain clinics in the province.That’s contrary to what Premier Tim Houston said on the The Todd Veinotte Show in November. “There was definitely an effort to reassign patients,” Houston said in response to a question from patient Ann Gilroy, who lives in Springhill, N.S.Ann Gilroy received lidocaine infusion therapy every four weeks for chronic pain as a result of a car accident, but those appointments are cancelled indefinitely. (Luke Ettinger/CBC)In a subsequent interview with CBC News, Gilroy said she and countless others have been offered no alternative. Despite suffering from increasing pain, she continues to work.“And then I come home and I go to bed. I don’t have a life. I don’t go anywhere. I can’t visit. I don’t have time and energy for my friends and family because I’m exhausted and in pain.” MORE TOP STORIESABOUT THE AUTHORLuke Ettinger is a reporter with CBC Nova Scotia based in Truro. Reach him at luke.ettinger@cbc.ca.
Patients of Amherst-area pain clinic say they’re suffering without care
