Nova Scotia promises better care with revamped family doctor wait-list

More than 65,000 Nova Scotians are still on a waitlist for a family doctor.

HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia government is revamping the way its family doctor wait-list works and says it will connect patients to a health-care provider more quickly.

Health Minister Michelle Thompson says the old list was just a static collection of names that didn’t have much information about the patients or their health situations.

Now when people join the list, health officials will speak with them about their needs, a change the government says will provide better and faster care.

The government says 50,000 people in the last nine months tried to sign up because their family doctor was retiring, but they were quickly reassigned, eliminating the need to join the wait-list at all.

There’s almost 66,000 Nova Scotians on the wait-list, down from more than 160,000 about 18 months ago.

The Canadian Medical Association estimates there’s about 6.5 million people in the country without a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2026.