If you are currently experiencing the onset of any of the following symptoms: thoughts of suicide, harming yourself or others, chest pain, shortness of breath or trouble breathing, severe abdominal pain, loss/alteration of consciousness, slurred speech or trouble speaking, sudden loss of vision, trouble raising your arms or weakness on one side of your body, face or numbness or drooping, please call 911 or visit an emergency department immediately.
If you have a non-life threatening urgent health concern, your first call should be to your family doctor or nurse practitioner.
A primary care clinic provides short-term primary medical care for people on the Need a Family Practice Registry.
You can find the list of clinics and contact numbers here.
Nova Scotia Health is offering a virtual option for people coming to the hospital with urgent, non-life-threatening health issues. Virtual Urgent Care is not a replacement for the local emergency department but will be particularly helpful during times when the local emergency department is temporarily closed.
Receiving urgent care virtually is simple, safe and confidential. At times when virtual urgent care is offered, patients will be assessed by on-site triage staff and register as usual.
Some examples of what may be able to be seen through a virtual appointment include:
You can find locations and hours of operation here.
Mobile primary care clinics address non-urgent health issues and are not an emergency service. The types of health concerns that may be addressed at these clinics include:
They can not order bloodwork or diagnostic imaging (ex, xRay, ultrasound, etc), provide immunizations, or complete medical forms (unless indicated here). You can find the scheduled locations and access information for upcoming Mobile Primary Care Clinics here.
Urgent Treatment Centres provide access to care for those with unexpected, non-life-threatening health concerns with appointments offered within one to two days.
Some examples of urgent, non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries include:
Appointments are required and can be made by calling the numbers below:
Call 811 to speak with a registered nurse for health care advice, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Also, there is information on more than 500 health topics at: 811.NovaScotia.ca.
*During busy times a nurse may not be available right away. In those cases, a Telehealth Associate will take your information, and a nurse will call you back. This may take several hours during peak activity periods.
You can visit any of NSH's Emergency Departments when you require primary care during their regular hours of operation.
Visiting the emergency department will often require long wait times, and more urgent cases are always treated as a priority. If your primary care care issue isn't life threatening, the emergency department may not be the best choice for you to access primary care.
Click the button below if you would like to start over and complete the Accessing Primary Care questionnaire with different answers.