Code Critical: Family doctors, walk-in clinics and how stretched the N.S. system is – Halifax [Video]

This is the second instalment in a Global News series called Code Critical, which examines the issues impacting the health-care system in Nova Scotia. Read Part 1: How a N.S. woman without a family doctor prays her family ‘doesn’t get sick.’

As a family doctor in Halifax, Dr. Leisha Hawker is well aware of the demands and burnout she and her colleagues face daily.

The former president of Doctors Nova Scotia believes the province’s health-care system is stretched thin — but what’s even more daunting is the fact it will worsen.

“The biggest concern I have is we just don’t have enough bodies,” she said.

“We know about a quarter of our family doctors are probably going to retire in the next five to 10 years.”

Hawker said she and so many other physicians are not just family doctors but “fill some other gaps in the health-care system.”

“We often work in …