Outsider Karen Oldfield Transforming Healthcare in Nova Scotia

Insights with Don Mills and David Campbell- An Acadia Broadcasting Podcast

The decision to appoint someone outside the healthcare community to lead the NS Health Authority was met with considerable scepticism across the healthcare sector in Nova Scotia, yet that was exactly what the doctor ordered to introduce a series of innovations that is set to transform healthcare, not just in Nova Scotia, but potentially across the country. Using pharmacists to treat and prescribe drugs was a first in Canada and is being adopted elsewhere already. Introducing urgent care centres to take the pressure off emergency rooms is another. Providing Nova Scotians with an app to access their own health records is another. Expanding access to more surgery time after hours and on the weekend is another.

This episode of the Insights Podcast features an in depth conversation with Karen Oldfield, the interim CEO of NS Health Authority who acknowledges that the province needs to do a better job informing Nova Scotians about the changes happening in healthcare and their impacts on the public, in particular the need to reset expectations regarding the access to primary care which will not longer be based on a sole practitioner family doctor model.