South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater, NS. Photo: Evan Taylor
The Nova Scotia Health Authority is resuming more of their services as the frequency of COVID-19 cases continues to drop.
“Over the past few weeks our teams across the organization have been working on how to safely reintroduce our health care programs and services that had to be postponed to support our COVID-19 response efforts,” said Dr. Brendan Carr, NSHA President, and CEO. “We had made significant and unprecedented adjustments to the delivery of health care and careful planning is required to resume services and procedures.”
Ambulatory (outpatient) clinics are amongst the services that are returning. Most clinics will resume, continue to see patients virtually with in-person appointments as required, and/or increase the number of patient visits. The types of clinics that will resume will vary at locations across the province. Examples of these clinics include wound care, ECG, renal, medical specialty, orthopedic assessment.
Testing appointments for things like blood work and diagnostic imaging will also resume but require an appointment in advance. Some sites in the Northern Zone have begun taking walk-ins but the NSHA says that is the only zone currently allowing walk-ins.
Non-urgent surgeries that can be completed by outpatient services or in a single day will also begin immediately. Virtually all non-urgent surgical procedures have been suspended for over two months.
“We know there are many Nova Scotians who are concerned about their health since their care or treatment has been delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Carr. “We share their concern and request your patience as resuming services is going to take some time as we assess and prioritize patients whose procedures were canceled. This needs to be done gradually and cautiously.”
Patients will be contacted directly by the NSHA when their appointment has been scheduled.
