72-year-old Canso doctor calls for better succession planning
CBC
After practising medicine for 47 years in Nova Scotia, Dr. Cathy Felderhof is looking to reduce her workload and take some time off.
But finding someone to take her place has been a challenge.
She's been searching for two years for a doctor to take over her role in Canso, at the eastern tip of the province's mainland. She's had no luck.
She does not want to leave unless a replacement family physician is hired in the rural community she has grown to love over the past 17 years.
"It would be like leaving your children behind, you've taken care of them," said Felderhof. "You have taken care of all generations and you get to know them very well, so you want to be sure they're taken care of."
She has been helping care for the community of about 800 people along with two other doctors at the Canso Medical Centre.
They work in one-week rotations. During the rotation, they are on call 24/7 as the emergency room doctor for the Eastern Memorial Hospital across the street.
"We get calls during the night, not every night," she said. "It's a tough job in the sense that I'm tired when I leave on the seventh day."
Doctor shortages have been a problem for a number of years in Nova Scotia. As of April 1, there were 88,359 Nova Scotians on the family practice registry wait-list.
Felderhof is not ready to retire, but she would like to take some time off this summer to consider next steps. It's something she has never done in her long career.
"I can't even remember when I last took a week off to tell you the truth. It's hard to walk away."
She would like to see an improved strategy when it comes to succession planning for doctors.
It's been an issue for years, she said, and as of now there is no doctor scheduled to work the second week of May at the Canso family practice.
While keen to work in partnership with Nova Scotia Health on what the community needs, she believes the recruiting model needs to be examined.
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