‘We need you back’: NS Tory MLA, residents want unvaccinated ER doctor back to work

Chris Palmer was on the phone with an ER doctor who wanted to work.

The Kings West Conservative MLA was in a difficult position.

Soldiers Memorial Hospital had lost three ER doctors in the space of a year and the hospital was struggling, but the doctor was not vaccinated so he could no longer work there.

Palmer sympathized.

“We need you back,” he told the doctor who lives just 10 minutes from Soldiers Memorial, where he had worked for many years.

The hospital struggled to keep its emergency room open, which was only open six hours a day. The closures piled up. The people of the town had had it and in a few weeks they would hold a rally demanding that their ER be back up and running 24 hours a day. The situation would get even worse.

But back to the January call. Palmer informed the doctor that he had his support. The doctor was out of work for a little over a year. He applied for leave after the province rolled out a policy requiring health workers to take two vaccinations.

Palmer, who is a member of the government that enforced that policy, told the doctor he really wanted him back to work.

He said it was time for everyone to be brought back and he told the doctor he wasn’t the only one who insisted. A few others in the conservative party were, too, Palmer said.

“We do what we can,” he said.

It was not about policy or politics.

“I’m a very pragmatic person,” Palmer said.

“All I want is good results.”

Palmer hoped the doctor would be back at work within a few weeks. That never happened because Nova Scotia, along with British Columbia, still requires hospital workers to receive two vaccinations.

Things would get even worse at Soldiers Memorial and emergency room closures continued.

Fast forward to June. The off-duty doctor was working in the garden when a man went into cardiac arrest in one of the hospital’s rooms. At the time, the emergency room was not open and there was no doctor on duty in the inpatient department. Staff called volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services to try to resuscitate the man, while a doctor went there nearly 40 minutes away in Kentville. The patient died.

We talked to the unvaccinated doctor about what happened. He believes he could have saved the man’s life had he worked or been called up that day.

A week before his six-minute phone call with MLA Palmer, the doctor had sent an email to Cheryl Pugh, Nova Scotia Health’s medical director for the Western Zone. He informed her that he wanted to go back to work. The only thing standing in the way was Nova Scotia Health’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

Neither Pugh nor anyone else at Nova Scotia Health responded to his email.

We’ve tried to reach Palmer several times to see if he’s sticking to what he told the doctor about being allowed to go back to work, but his assistant said he wasn’t available. SaltWire has a recording of the phone call.

SaltWire visited Middleton Thursday and spoke to three residents about the situation in their emergency room. Elk said they can’t count on it being open when needed.

They also said they would not worry about being treated by an unvaccinated doctor.

“I’d rather have a doctor than none at all because our emergency room is a joke,” said Joanne Ring.

“I can’t speak for everyone in our community, but I think most don’t care in any way, whether they’re vaccinated or not. If you’re really sick and end up in the emergency room, who cares? He’s going to help you get better.”

Sheri Deveau, who has been without a doctor for five years, agreed.

“I think 95 percent of the community would rather have someone they can go to for emergency health care when they need it,” she said.