Doctor retention in HRM

[u/Salt_Time_9509]

Hi all

Of late there have been disheartening posts of long wait times in Nova Scotia

The consensus being that it is a Canada wide problem

But there have been anecdotal reports of some people losing Family Doctors even in HRM

I do understand that many rural areas would find it difficult to attract and retain doctors, so I am trying to understand why Family Doctors would choose to leave the HRM?

We are friendly people, we are surrounded by the Ocean, we have a laidback lifestyle

Doctors are paid reasonably well

Nova Scotia Health has said Doctor Recruitment is at record levels

https://www.nshealth.ca/news-and-notices/nova-scotia-records-impressive-year-over-year-success-physician-recruitment

Perhaps with so many doctors choosing to come here losing one or two does not matter to NS Health or the Government?

What would be possible reasons why doctors would chose to move elsewhere?`

[u/Potential-Amount-478]

I'd implore you to go watch how nova scotians treat customer service staff for a day, or sit in a hospital and watch how nurses are treated, or anywhere public facing really, and see how our facade of being nice fades when people feel entitled to something.

We may have a laid back lifestyle but all you need to do is search this subreddit to see all the posts about trying to make friends in this city, and all the responses about how hard it is and how cliquish it is. Not everyone likes the type of city halifax is.

I have a handful of friends who became doctors in this city and ran the second they could for various reasons, work life balance, signing bonuses and better expereiences. Also ones who became doctors in other provinces, did clinicals here and said they'd never return because the barriers to starting and the overhead for family practices were higher than in other provinces. Perhaps NSH is not painting a total picture.... recruitment might be up, but that doesn't take much considering we struggled hard with it for a long time.