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More than five years into a mandate specifically to fix health care, wait times across the province continue to be a major cause for concern.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender says that right now, many Nova Scotians don’t have access to reliable emergency services.

“And when one rural emergency department closes, we know that it means that people have to drive further and further and wait longer for care in another department that is almost assuredly already overcrowded.”

She adds that, according to data from Nova Scotia Health, wait times in emergency rooms have increased by nearly 40% since 2021, and emergency departments in Lunenburg, Shelburne, Middleton and Glace Bay were closed more often than they were open.

The NDP says it forced a debate on Wednesday, Sept. 16, calling on the Houston government to deliver a plan “that shortens wait times and gets people the care that they deserve.”

Chender says that, as part of the NSNDP’s Opposition Day, the party also submitted a proposal to make birth control, hormone replacement therapy and one round of IVF free for families, as well as a bill to put an independent Board of Governance back in place to oversee health-care decisions and spending.

‘Seeing firsthand just how broken the emergency health care system is has been difficult to process.’

That morning, Chender was joined at Province House by people who have had recent negative ER experiences.

After spending several days feeling unwell last month, Donna Manning says she sought help at the Cobequid ER, where it took an hour before she was called for registration. She was then told the hospital was “over capacity” and that she needed to go to Dartmouth General Hospital.

She says that once she registered there, it took about 16 uncomfortable hours to be seen by a doctor.

“They [nurses] took me into an exam room, then asked me to wait while they got someone to change the bed covering to a clean one. They stepped out of the room, looked up and down the hallway, then came back inside, closed the door, and said they ‘guess we’d have to make do.’ So I lay down on the dirty bed to be examined.

“My total time with the doctor was no more than three minutes.”

Manning says that because she needed emergency care, she missed a full day of work, and therefore a full day of income.

Chender points out that “If we want to keep Nova Scotians here and our communities thriving, people have to have the health care services they need, when they need it.”