Heartland Tour 2010 Complete!

Ok, so it's been over a week!  It's time I posted my results on the Heartland Tour.  8 communities 8 days, 81.81 kilometres per day average, so that's a grand total of 736 km!  Not bad for a slightly over-weight (ok, ok more than slightly)  40 year old politician.

Three years ago I was the Minister of Health and that kind of activity would have been impossible. I was over worked, stressed out and a candidate for a heart attack, hell I had already suffered a number of episodes of atrial fibrillation.  Time and time again I spoke of taking care of our own health, so that we would not be too much of a burden on the Nova Scotia health care system.  As a government we worked hard to find new ways to incite this change in the population with the creation of the Department of Health Promotion, and all the great programming that went with it.  This didn't make me any leaner, or fitter though.

Three years ago this July, I had the opportunity to meet a band of cyclists led by Dr. Nick Giacomantonio that stopped into the opening of the Festival International de Par-en-bas in Tusket.  He was leading twenty or so folks from different background around a number of communities in Nova Scotia for bicycle rides of 100kms.  That day I committed to riding with the team from the Yarmouth lighthouse to the waterfront in Yarmouth, about 12 kms.  Core member Ron Allen, a resident of Bridgewater and Ironman, thought I seemed like a nice guy, but didn't believe that I actually come out.  I did!  On the way into town I spoke to Nick, well really he spoke, I tried not the pass out and listened.  I was sold with his message of healthy communities.

After lots of consideration, I decided to walk the walk and volunteer for the core team and commit to a week of cycling.  2009 was year one, and this year was number 2.  I had a great time and survived lots of kilometres and even one crash.

Every community was different, no just is ride, but in how the community looks at the message of well being.  Halifax saw a number of folks come out for the two rides, one to Peggy's Cove and the other around to Herring Cove.  Plus the support from the District Health Authority was great.  Pictou had us in our first Parade as the community was celebrating it's Lobster Festival.

Bridgewater had a great ride, but also a great afternoon for children that saw a number of bikes given away as prizes.  Then it was Truro, Sydney, Antigonish, Kentville and then home to Yarmouth.   Yarmouth in my mind has it all, a great ride, a great committee and great connection to the community.  We were able to ride in the Seafest Parade and have a ton of kids turn out to hear the message of physical activity.

All in all we touched the lives of thousands of Nova Scotians, and even if just a handful folks change their lives, we've done our job!  I really need to thank the core team for their support and help during the week, Dr. Nick for his friendship and taking on this little endeavour and all the companies that support the cause.

Now that the 2010 Heartland Tour is done all that is left is to maintain the fitness that I have achieved and build on it.  60 lbs gone in 3 years, 30 to go!  All I ask is for you to do the same, take back your health.

Here's my links to the community rides.

HLT Day 1 - Halifax 
HLT Family Ride - Halifax
HLT Day 2 - Pictou County
HLT Day 3 - Bridgewater
HLT Day 4 - Truro
HLT Day 5 - Sydney
HLT Day 6 - Antigonish
HLT Day 7 - Valley
HLT Day 8 - Yarmouth

HeartlandTour 2010

The time has come again to put on the spandex (ick) and hop on my trusty road bike and tour around the province on the Heartland Tour, an awareness bicycle ride for Cardiac and Cancer health.

I got roped into this a couple of years ago by some friends while I was Minister of Health, Dr. Nick Giacomantonio and Ross Haynes, QC.  I was a tad (means lots) overweight and suffering occasionally by the occasional bout of Atrial Fibrillation (a fancy cardiac term), I was impressed by the teams commitment to living better and trying to get people off their couches.

Each summer the core team of 25 - 30 riders visit communities around Nova Scotia and invite locals along for a ride, mostly from 30 to 100 kms.  The response has been incredible and hundreds of people have joined in, from young fit whippersnappers to 70 year old young at heart whippersnappers and everyone in between.

From this has blossomed into programs and bike clubs around the province.  As I have said many times in speeches, in order to help the Health Care Crisis, we need to create societal change, we need to get fitter and healthier, and we can only do it one person at a time.  I started with myself and since that time I've lost close to 60 pounds and seen others follow my lead.

Saturday the ride begins in Halifax on the Cunard St. side of the Commons and then on to Pictou, Bridgewater, Truro, Sydney, Antigonish, Kentville and Yarmouth.  Drop by and see us, wave as we go by, but hopefully we will entice you to join us for a little ride around your community.

This year I will, rain or shine, racking up over 800 kms and going to have a ton of fun doing it.  Follow my twitter @ChrisMLA or Facebook to see how we are doing or check out the website at www.heartlandtour.ca.

Question on Doctor Shortage in Yarmouth County

HANSARD 10-29

DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS

Speaker: Honourable Charlie Parker

Published by Order of the Legislature by Hansard Reporting Services and printed by the Queen's Printer.

Available on INTERNET at http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/HOUSE_BUSINESS/hansard.html

Second Session

THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010

[Page 2071]

MR. SPEAKER: The honourable member for Argyle.

HEALTH - FAM. DR. SHORTAGE: YARMOUTH

- ADDRESS

HON. CHRISTOPHER D'ENTREMONT: Mr. Speaker, my question through you is to the Minister of Health. In Yarmouth many people still do not have access to a family doctor. The situation has been getting worse and people cannot access the two clinics in Yarmouth, and I'm sure the minister is aware of the Ocean View Family Clinic and the Harbourview family clinic.

As a former government, we established these clinics as training grounds for non-Canadian licenced doctors to get their Canadian licence and see them become established in the community - but this has not been the case and every one of these new doctors has moved away. Family doctors are at capacity and cannot accept new patients, and as a result people have to go to the emergency room to have small routine issues addressed - it's hardly a kind of efficiency that we need in our health care system. Mr. Speaker, my question for the minister is, what is your plan to address the family doctor shortage in Yarmouth and throughout the tri-county region?

HON. MAUREEN MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for a very important question. I do understand that there has been a loss of some family doctors through the International Medical Graduate Program, the CAP program, in the Yarmouth area. The Department of Health works very closely with the district health authority; we're working with the South West Health DHA to attract family physicians in that area. We do have a number of programs that will offer debt assistance to new graduates who are prepared to locate in a particular area, and the Yarmouth area is a priority area for us because of the loss of family physicians.

MR. D'ENTREMONT: Mr. Speaker, recently doctors had a meeting in Halifax with the Department of Health officials where the doctors from Yarmouth were told that there is no doctor shortage in Yarmouth - this despite the fact that many, if not thousands of people in the tri-counties do not have access to a family doctor. We need to address the situation of foreign doctors becoming physician transients, at the Ocean View Family Clinic and at the Harbourview family clinic, to the frustration and disappointment of the residents of southwestern Nova Scotia.

My question to the minister is, will the minister listen to the people of Yarmouth and southwestern Nova Scotia and make a commitment to the community on coming up with solutions that will address the doctor shortage in the short term and plan for a long-term doctor commitment?

[Page 2072]

MS. MAUREEN MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, we do have a variety of programs - we assist in funding site visits, for example, for physicians who want to come to a community and learn more about what's available in that community, and we do have the assistance for debt that physicians have accrued when they go through the very lengthy process of medical school in return for service to a particular community. So these programs are available. We work closely with the DHA and we will continue to do so.

I think one of the difficulties, as I understand it, with physicians coming to this part of Nova Scotia has been the inability to secure employment for spouses, which increasingly is a growing concern that we're seeing in some communities - but we will continue to work very closely with the DHAs to ensure that we have family practices throughout our province.

MR. D'ENTREMONT: Mr. Speaker, I've received lots of letters from concerned citizens in Yarmouth who do not have access to a family doctor, people like Roland Melanson from Yarmouth. Mr. Melanson has had 14 different family doctors since 1980 and has health-related issues that require him to go and wait eight to 10 hours at the Yarmouth emergency room to have 15-minute consultations that could have been conducted by a family physician.

The minister has the responsibility to Nova Scotians to offer better than what the people of Yarmouth are currently receiving. Now is the time to help the people of southwestern Nova Scotia have improved access to family doctors. Instead of reducing funding to Dalhousie Medical School, will the minister consider increasing the number of seats at Dalhousie, in return for service in rural areas of Nova Scotia?

MS. MAUREEN MACDONALD: Mr. Speaker, we have a working group in the department in discussions with Dalhousie Medical School with respect to the seats that we fund at the school, which we want to continue to fund. We do have reciprocal service agreements. We were able to recruit, and there is a new physician in the Barrington area of southwest Nova Scotia, and we will continue to work to ensure that there is good family practice coverage for residents of Yarmouth and the tri-county area.