Ensuring we have enough doctors in Cape Breton to deliver our health care is about more than just recruitment. Once we get doctors here, we have to be able to convince them to stay here as well. Unfortunately, this week Dr. Walaa Moamer announced the closure of their office. A Cape Breton resident shared the notice posted in their local pharmacy on Facebook.

Losing doctors can cause an adverse chain reaction. As the public becomes more concerned (or even desperate) for medical care, their frustration will increasingly be passed onto the medical community. It's difficult to villainize us for being upset when we've had family members wait 300 days for emergency mental health care, when we have long surgical wait times, we are unable to get a timely visit to our family doctor or simply don't have one, or we've visited one of the emergency rooms to wait hours only to be shuttled back out after a quick look over by an overworked doctor... that just doesn't have enough time for everyone.

However, the medical personnel suffers too. They have to deal with a sicker (by virtue of having to wait longer for care) public. When people are desperate for care or emergency rooms are about to close due to lack of medical staffing, it's them that have to decide if they'll bring themselves closer to mental and physical exhaustion to work the extra hours. Even for those who pull those extra shifts, the public is left with minimal time to see them, and there is a reasonable uncertainty of the level of attention and care that can come from a physician overworked and overstressed by their own responsibilities.

An overworked physician dealing with not only the medical care of Cape Bretoners but also their frustrations may easily become motivated to depart. This becomes an even easier decision when we acknowledge that they essentially have job opportunities awaiting them all across North America and beyond.

The root cause of this problem lies in bureaucracy. As long as healthcare is only a focus of attention for the distracted MLAs of second fiddle political parties seeking a shot at a majority government, we are going to make very little progress. The last announcement of new physicians is also drawing reasonable scrutiny. With every announcement, those of us concerned with the state of our healthcare have to repeat two concerning questions to the Nova Scotia Health Authority:

• Are you double counting again?
• How many doctors have we lost during the same period of time?

NOTE: The views expressed above are my own and do not represent lokol (goCapeBreton.com). Read more