Nova Scotia Health excited for the future based on past year’s outcomes

Several exciting milestone benchmarks highlight the 2024-25 Annual Report, released today by Nova Scotia Health Administrator Chris Power and Interim President and CEO Karen Oldfield. 

“The people and teams across Nova Scotia Health have continued to shift obstacles into opportunities across the care system, with the data in this report being the proof point of progress,” said Power. “However, the numbers only tell a piece of the success story. Each statistical improvement represents a positive impact on the life of a single Nova Scotian and their loved ones.”

The theme of this year’s annual report is Beyond the data: Progress powered by people.

“Data is at the core of every decision we make,” Oldfield said. “But we don’t see the excellent results we did last year without the hard work of our people. And Nova Scotians see those results every day. Whether it’s through recruiting, creating more access points for care, reducing surgery wait times, improving access to mental health supports, or ensuring patients get the right care in the right setting, our people are making a difference.” 

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Derek Spinney presented the 2024-25 financial statement. 

In March, Nova Scotia Health hosted its second annual provincial career fair. Despite an early spring snowstorm that closed schools and hampered road travel in many parts of the province, the fair attracted nearly double the previous year’s attendance with more than 5,000 guests.

The 2024 career fair led to 294 hires, with the 2025 career fair resulting in 284 hires and counting. 

In the 2024-25 fiscal year, Nova Scotia Health successfully onboarded 1,348 nurses (RN 993, LPN 338, NP 17), with the physician recruitment team successfully hiring 253 physicians (89 family physicians and 164 specialists). 

This resulted in a net gain of 187 new physicians and 591 new nurses.

The ongoing progress made to increase access to primary care has been outstanding. This year, a significant number of Nova Scotians were connected to a primary care provider, or confirmed they no longer needed one.

As well, by providing numerous pathways to care, like Urgent Treatment Centres, Community Pharmacy Primary Care Clinics, VirtualCareNS and Mobile Primary Care Clinics, Nova Scotia Health created an additional 80,000 primary care appointments a month compared to last fiscal year.

Nova Scotia Health hit a major milestone this year with the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s wait-time standards. Nova Scotia Health led the country in the shortest wait for cataract surgery and ranked third for hip and knee joint replacements. This, compounded with performing 3,000 more surgeries than in fiscal 2023-24, shows the perioperative team is undeniably demonstrating that a rising tide lifts all ships.

The Mental Health Day Hospital program expanded to Kentville and Truro in 2024-25, providing clients with intensive mental health support programming without requiring an inpatient stay, and without being away from home. This year, the program cared for 3,300 clients and saved more than 6,000 inpatient care days.

And in December, Nova Scotia Health and Shannex Inc. opened West Bedford Transitional Health Centre. The Nova Scotia Health facility is the first standalone centre of its kind in Nova Scotia. It provides patients who no longer need in-hospital care with the additional support and rehabilitation they require before returning to the place they call home.

The health centre supports improved access and flow across the acute care system by increasing inpatient hospital capacity, which leads to quicker admission from emergency departments and faster ambulance offload times. Since opening, West Bedford has saved approximately 14,000 patient days from acute care units.

Nova Scotia Health’s full 2024-25 annual report is available at 2024/2025 Annual Report | Nova Scotia Health. 

Watch here.