Some concerned citizens in Guysborough are creating a grassroots health care committee.
The two hospitals in the municipality- Guysborough Memorial Hospital and Eastern Memorial Hospital in Canso- have faced ongoing doctor and nurse recruitment issues, which have also led to emergency room closures.
Paul Long, one of the committee members, says concerned citizens are getting together to take action.
Long tells The Hawk they don’t necessarily want to be adversarial in nature.
“It’s got to be a supportive one,” he says. “Sometimes you can get more bees with honey, but at the same time, you can’t sit back and do nothing either- you can’t let people kind of just dictate to you what’s going on sometimes.”
Long says a different viewpoint is needed.
He says they want provincial health officials to understand rural areas are different than urban areas.
“The (Nova Scotia) Health Authority can’t really treat every place in the province the same,” he says. “There’s different needs and different resources out there- Guysborough is not the same as Halifax.”
Long says the committee’s first meeting takes place at the Chedabucto Lifestyle Complex- and via Zoom- at 7 p.m. Thursday.
