Fire Department Called to Assist Dying Patient in NS Hospital With No Doctor

A sign for a hospital in Montreal, Feb. 6, 2022. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes

A Nova Scotia mayor says a patient died last week in his Annapolis Valley town after going into cardiac arrest at a hospital where no doctor was present.

Mayor Sylvester Atkinson of Middleton, N.S., says volunteer firefighters were called to the Soldiers Memorial Hospital to attend to a patient because the closest doctor was 30 minutes away.

Atkinson made the comments in a letter to Premier Tim Houston that was published Tuesday on social media. The letter says the fire department was called to the hospital around 9 p.m. on June 15.

“Our fire department was informed there was no doctor on site, nor was there one on call,” he wrote, adding that a doctor was en route to the hospital.

The fire department and paramedics “provided life-saving measures” until the doctor arrived, but “unfortunately, the patient did not survive,” the mayor wrote. “The doctor called time of death when they arrived on the scene.”

Health Minister Michelle Thompson told reporters Wednesday in Halifax that she couldn’t comment directly on the case because of privacy concerns. She said her heart goes out to the patient’s family, who are “grieving very publicly” after the letter was posted online.

Thompson said that in rural communities, the nearest doctor is sometimes up to half an hour away, adding that the province was recruiting more health-care workers, including rural doctors.

“We know that there is a shortage of physicians,” she said, “we certainly are working very, very hard across all communities in Nova Scotia to recruit,” though she noted there was a “national and global shortage” of doctors.

In an email, Nova Scotia Health spokesperson Brendan Elliot said proper protocol was followed at the hospital, noting that “staff performed admirably.”

He said there is always a doctor on call for in-patient care at Soldiers Memorial Hospital. The physician, he added, can “either be on site or nearby” and can provide consultation remotely or in person.