Nearly 62,000 Nova Scotians remain on the primary care wait list, and the Fraser Institute says increasing the province's medical school seats is critical.
Nadeem Esmail, the institute's health policy director, says the number of physicians graduating in Nova Scotia is well below what is required, noting wait times for treatment in Atlantic Canada are much longer than the national average.
Dalhousie University welcomed 147 first-year medical students this year, out of 3,610 nationally. Esmail says Canada graduates barely half the rate of physicians compared to other developed countries.
The province added 30 seats at the new Cape Breton medical school, where students follow a rural-care path and commit to practice family medicine in rural Nova Scotia for five years after graduation. But Esmail warns they are six years from practice.
Health Minister Michelle Thompson says recruitment has helped reduce the wait list by about 1,200 people since last month, with 63 net new family care providers added by the end of December.
Premier Tim Houston says the PACE clinic, which credentials foreign-trained doctors, is a new addition to the system.
Dr. Amanda MacDonald Green, Doctors Nova Scotia's president-elect, warns that graduating physicians will not keep pace with retiring doctors, especially given an aging population with more complex health needs.