NDP bill would open health authority board meetings to the public
The Nova Scotia Health Authority is the only one of its kind in the country with a board of governors that meets in secret and whose work is completely shielded from public view — something the NDP wants to change.
The party unveiled plans Wednesday to introduce a bill aimed at prying open the doors to those board meetings, along with a second bill that would force the authority to collect more information about wait times and then make it public.
The party will introduce the bills when the spring sitting of the Nova Scotia Legislature begins next week.
NDP Leader Gary Burrill called it "an important first step" to deal with the province's current "health-care crisis."
The Nova Scotia Health Authority Openness Act would make board meetings open to the public and force the authority to give public notification of when meetings will take place. The proposed law would also make the agenda and minutes of those meetings publicly available.
Accountability Act
A second bill, the Nova Scotia Health Authority Accountability Act, would require the authority to track and report:
- Percentage of emergency room patients without a regular family doctor or other health provider.
- Triage-to-admission targets.
- Emergency room wait times.
- Number of alternate-level care and long-term care patients taking up a hospital bed.
- Wait times between first intake appointment and admission to community-based mental health services.
- Percentage of patients admitted to those programs within six weeks.
Burrill said this information is vital to solving current problems.
"What is the percentage of our hospital beds that are being taken up with non-hospital patients? We think this is germane to dealing with this, certainly germane to the crisis of emergency rooms," he said.
"Why do we have people, reports of people spending the last days of their lives on a stretcher without a curtain, outside of a pop machine, next to a pop machine? That's because there is no space in the hospitals because there are so many people in alternate level of care."
Health authority responds
The health authority said prior to its creation, the nine separate health authorities used to track different data using different methods. The organization has been working to improve consistency in data tracking and said it plans to add more quarterly reporting to its public website soon.
In an emailed statement, spokesperson Carla Adams said the health authority already reports several of the issues raised by the NDP, including the length of stay at emergency rooms and the volumes of triage levels; the wait times for placement in long-term care and the percentage of patients placed into long-term care from hospital; and the wait time for community-based mental health services from the point of referral to the intake appointment.
The statement said that the mental health and addictions team is working to address gaps in data tracking and reporting.
The percentage of people who arrive at emergency rooms without a family doctor or other health provider is "tracked and provided as required to primary care," the health authority said.
"Regarding board meetings, NSHA's board of directors operates according to bylaws established by the provincial government and attached to the Health Authorities Act passed by the provincial legislature."
