HALIFAX - Paul Wozney says he received a blunt assessment of an overcrowded emergency room where he was told some patients had been waiting over 70 hours.
鈥淚t鈥檚 Armageddon here.鈥澛
Wozney, an NDP member of the Nova Scotia legislature, told 国产诱惑福利 a health care worker gave him this description when they called in the middle of their shift on Tuesday, which they called the 鈥渨orst day on record.鈥澛
Wozney said the worker was fed up and concerned with the standard of care and wait times at the Cobequid Community Health Centre.
The Cobequid centre in Lower Sackville, N.S. is in a suburban neighbourhood of the Halifax region and has no inpatient facilities. Patients who need more acute care would have to travel roughly 20 kilometers to hospitals in Halifax or Dartmouth.
On Tuesday, 18 of the health centre鈥檚 26 emergency beds were filled by patients waiting to transfer to a larger hospital. Many of these were patients waiting to get admitted to acute care for cardiac issues, strokes or major bone breaks.聽
鈥淭hese folks were sitting, housed in the ER, in settings that aren鈥檛 equipped to meet their needs for over three days," Wozney said.
When these kinds of backlogs happen, staff aren鈥檛 able to treat as many patients that come through the emergency department, Wozney added.
Staff had to turn away one individual who suffered a stroke, and they did not have the capacity to treat them, he said.
Wozney detailed his phone call with the health care worker in a letter to Health Minister Michelle Thompson.聽
"I ask you to take immediate action to remedy the extreme pressures the CCHC Emergency department, care team and patients are facing," Wozney wrote in the letter. "I request that you communicate to the people of Sackville-Cobequid when your government will deliver on its promise to expand this facility."
Thompson was not immediately available for comment.聽
This is not the first time the Cobequid centre has dealt with a backlog. In 2022, Wozney said there was a period where 11 patients waited for an in-patient transfer for over 70 hours. The health centre also regularly closes its emergency department between midnight and 7 a.m.
In 2022, the Houston government announced a planned expansion to the Cobequid centre. At the time, the government planned to add a building which would create 36 in-patient beds, and assess the existing emergency department for a possible expansion or even replacement.聽
鈥淭he minister, all she鈥檒l say is that (the expansion) is being considered,鈥 Wozney said. 鈥淧olitics aside, real people with real health care needs deserve real answers.鈥
This report by 国产诱惑福利 was first published Nov. 5, 2025.
