A Cape Breton doctor is concerned about the future of pain care in eastern parts of Nova Scotia due to what he describes as a lack of resources provided by the provincial health authority to treat patient symptoms.
Dr. Robert MacNeill is a specialist who works four days a week at a Sydney pain clinic located inside the Cape Breton Regional Hospital.
The clinic handles roughly 4,000 patient visits per year and services the Island’s four counties, as well as Antigonish, Pictou and Guysborough.
MacNeill said a second pain clinic in North Sydney recently scaled back some services after one of its doctors left the area, but it continues to offer pain-blocking injections to existing patients.
Some of the North Sydney patients who require non-infusion therapies are now being transferred to the Sydney clinic to be assessed and receive ongoing care or help with their medication.
“I’m not too sure the exact number of those patients,” said MacNeill, the medical director for chronic pain services in Nova Scotia Health’s eastern zone.
“I do know that they’re going on the end of a very long waitlist.”
Long waitlist for care
The waitlist for people wanting to access MacNeill’s services as a pain specialist is about three years long.
MacNeill said there are three pain specialists and two family physicians working at the Sydney clinic, including himself, although he plans to soon retire. He would like to see at least one more doctor hired at the clinic and other supports provided such as increased physiotherapy and psychology services and a nurse practitioner.
“Pain is now the commonest presenting complaint in the doctor’s office, be it emergency room or the doctor’s office,” said MacNeill. “So I think that the allocation of resources to reflect that would help us deliver care better.”
Nova Scotia Health confirmed a pain doctor who was overseeing the North Sydney clinic left the area in late August, but did not say how many patients have been impacted.
Cathy Lynn Howley, the eastern zone’s director of perioperative and pain services for Nova Scotia Health, said patient loads and services are being reviewed.
Howley said recruitment is ongoing for additional pain specialists at the Sydney clinic, while a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist have been hired and are due to begin work in the new year.
“The Sydney clinic is working through those consults and referrals, so we don’t have a clear picture of patient number[s] to date, but we’re continuing to work with the clinic in terms of prioritizing and ensuring that we’re able to get all those patients cared for,” Howley said.
MacNeil said getting resources allocated in Cape Breton has been more difficult since the province amalgamated nine regional health authorities into a single body in 2015 with four geographic zones.
MacNeil would like to see the government bring health-care decision-making back to Cape Breton, as he said it would make it easier for departments to make changes when needed such as hiring staff or making equipment purchases.
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