News release

Collaborative Emergency Centre Will Provide Better Care to Lunenburg

Health and Wellness

Nova Scotians living in the Lunenburg area will have better access to family doctors, nurses and other health-care providers and services, with the announcement today, Dec. 17, of a Collaborative Emergency Centre at Fishermen's Memorial Hospital.

The Lunenburg CEC will focus on providing enhanced access to primary care including same-day, or next-day medical appointments with a variety of health-care professionals including collaborative primary care teams.

"When we formed government, it was clear that Nova Scotians were concerned about the care available to them in their communities," said Health and Wellness Minister David Wilson. "The people of Luneburg want better, easier access to family doctors and having a collaborative emergency centre in their community will ensure they get better care."

Collaborative emergency centres help to address issues of long waits to see family doctors and emergency department overcrowding. These centres are keeping emergency departments open and reducing patient wait times by providing a team-based approach in delivering care.

As Dr. John Ross notes in his report on emergency care, each CEC model should consider an evolution tailored to the specific community. Ross cited Fisherman's Memorial Hospital as being in an "ideal position to continue its evolution into full service collaborative practice." South Shore Health is currently working with officials at the Department of Health and Wellness to develop the best possible CEC to meet the community's needs.

"This is good news for South Shore Health and Lunenburg," said Dr. Peter Vaughan, president and CEO of South Shore Health. "This is consistent with the model introduced to the community some time ago, which has been widely accepted by health-care providers and community members alike."

Nova Scotia's first Collaborative Emergency Centre opened in Parrsboro in July 2011. There are now CECs in Pugwash, Tatamagouche, Annapolis Royal, Musquodoboit Harbour, and Springhill.

For more information on the province's Better Care Sooner plan visit http://novascotia.ca/bettercaresooner.