Fed up with a lack of long-term care beds in Nova Scotia, a group of Canadian doctors has launched a social media campaign to raise funds and fill the care gap.
Three emergency room physicians last month launched a GoFundMe page to bankroll more nursing facility beds in the Canadian province, and they’re drumming up support on Twitter, too. They’re frustrated with how many elderly patients are waiting in emergency room beds at the Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville, rather than a nursing home, creating a worsening logjam, the Canadian Press reported Tuesday.
Advocacy is the main drive of the social media campaign, with the funds a secondary consideration the doctors say.
“We need to have a voice that’s independent of politics. Because politicians have a different agenda than clinicians and healthcare workers. We have to speak out,” said Keith MacCormick, M.D., one of the three doctors.
An official with the Nova Scotia Health Authority said the Kentville doctors have a valid bone to pick, but questioned whether such fundraising would help address the issue.
“I personally wonder if GoFundMe campaigns will achieve funding for long-term care beds. I’m not sure how that will work,” Taylor said.
Demand for nursing home beds has long outpaced supply in Nova Scotia, but the government has not added a new SNF bed since 2013, the Chronicle Herald reported. The three ER physicians estimate that thousands of new beds are needed to serve the province’s aging population, and acknowledge their fundraiser would only scratch the surface.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the page had raised almost $2,000 toward its $100,000 target.
