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Nova Scotia Health has resumed releasing more detailed information about the province\u2019s need-a-family-practice registry after a 21-month pause that officials said was required to ensure the list’s accuracy.<\/p>\n
Data released Wednesday<\/a> shows that 61,947 people were in need of a doctor or nurse practitioner as of April 1. That\u2019s down from 63,221 at the beginning of March and represents an 8.8 per cent decline from this time 12 months ago.<\/p>\n For the first time in more than a year and a half, the list includes details broken down into the four health zones.<\/p>\n There are 17,856 people on the registry in the western zone, representing 8.0 per cent of that region\u2019s population. The eastern zone has 14,716 people on the list (8.3% of the population), the northern zone has 13,395 (7.6%) and the central zone has 15,980 (3.1%) in need of a family practice.<\/p>\n More detailed community breakdowns have also returned to the monthly report, although they are not as broad as what was included in previous reports.<\/p>\n Data for April shows declines in need in many areas, with a few exceptions. The need went up most notably in Halifax Peninsula\/Chebucto (by 929 people) and Pictou County (384) compared to last month.<\/p>\n The biggest decreases were in Bedford\/Sackville (down by 2,155 people compared to last month), Cape Breton County (down 247), Annapolis and Kings (down 188) and Yarmouth\/Shelburne\/Digby (down by 153 people).<\/p>\n The areas with the greatest demand based on percentage of population are Pictou County (14.8%), Cape Breton County (10.5%) and Queens and Lunenburg (9.8%).<\/p>\n Areas with the lowest demand include Dartmouth\/Southeastern (1.7%), Eastern Shore Musquodoboit (2.0%), Bedford\/Sackville (2.6%) and Inverness\/Victoria\/Richmond (2.8%).<\/p>\n Detailed data release suspended to validate registry<\/p>\n Prior to Wednesday\u2019s information release, the health authority has been releasing just a global number each month to represent the size of the registry, with no other details.<\/p>\n It suspended more detailed information releases 21 months ago because officials said they needed to validate the list to ensure the people on it still needed a family practice and there were no duplications, and because they wanted to gather a sense of what level of care each person on the registry required.<\/p>\n Officials have never disclosed how many people were removed from the registry during the validation process because they didn’t need a family practice.<\/p>\n One thing that\u2019s not included in the new dataset is the number of patients considered to have pending status. That\u2019s the term the health authority uses for a patient who has been assigned to a family practice but has yet to have their first appointment.<\/p>\n