KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Both shocking and shockingly normal, My name is…, a short six-minute video gives voice to Shelburne residents worried about the state of healthcare in their neck of the woods.
In 2015-16 the Roseway Hospital ER in the Town of Shelburne, the only ER between Yarmouth and Liverpool, was closed 1,331 hours, or the equivalent of 55.5 days straight.
Getting timely treatment is crucial, so what do you do when the ER is closed? What do you do when there is a snowstorm and the ambulance from Yarmouth or Liverpool is going to take two hours to get to you?
“There was a lot of panic, hospital staff did a tremendous job with what they had. It’s scary though when you’re in a hospital and they call what is essentially 911, trying to get an EMT here to go to Liverpool,” says a father who took his son who was suffering from seizures to the local hospital while the ER was closed.
Click here to watch the video.
People in the video also talk about the lack of GPs in the area, and the long wait to see a specialist.
“If you want a prescription filled you have to go to the ER. So I go, wait for six hours, see a doctor and get some of my prescriptions filled,” says a Shelburne resident who has been without a doctor for well over a year.
The video, produced by Rob Stork, is the community’s way to raise awareness among politicians and decision makers.
“We need to keep the stories going, we need to never stop talking about it,” says Town of Shelburne mayor Karen Mattatall towards the end of the video.
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This is the main reason why my wife & I chose Halifax as the place to move to when we retired.
It’s pretty bad here in Halifax, too. But you might have been able to get a doctor before the severe shortage started a couple of years ago.
which is one of the reasons I choose Ecuador …