Nova Scotia Health completes surgeries at various hospital and clinics and offers a variety of services and supports to help patients who require surgery.
Surgeries and surgical procedures are completed at more than a dozen locations across the province. Some types of surgeries are only available at certain locations.
Surgeries are provided at most regional hospitals, some community hospitals, and through partnerships with some outside clinics.
Your healthcare provider may refer you to a specialist / surgeon to determine if surgery or endoscopy is needed or could help with an illness, condition or injury.
Many patients will be referred using Nova Scotia’s new eReferral tool. Patients who provide their email address can receive automatic email updates as information is added in the tool. When it comes time for an appointment, you may even have the option to confirm your appointment right from your email.
Patients being referred in the eReferral tool can ask their healthcare provider to note their preferences. This might include a certain facility or healthcare provider, or noting that you would be willing to travel to some other areas, or anywhere in the province, if it meant receiving care sooner. Please think about these options. It is important to remember that you may also need to travel to see the specialist for an appointment, for your surgery / procedure and for other care that may be needed before and after your procedure.
Surgeon / specialist offices book patients for an appointment to determine if a surgery / procedure, or other types of care, may be needed. At this appointment, your surgeon / specialist will discuss options with you to help you understand the benefits, risks and what is involved. Once a decision is made to go ahead with a surgery / procedure, you will be added to a wait list based on need.
Most surgeries or endoscopies are not considered emergencies and can be safely scheduled for a future date. These are sometimes referred to as elective surgeries or procedures and will be scheduled based on the priority level assigned by the surgeon or specialist.
Other surgeries may be considered to be urgent or an emergency and will occur quite quickly, sometimes the same day or within a matter of days.
How quickly you are scheduled for surgery / endoscopy will depend on how urgently you require care and how many other patients are waiting.
Most scheduled (elective) surgery or endoscopy patients are provided with a surgery date a few weeks ahead of their surgery.
Nova Scotia Health booking teams help support the scheduling process. Learn more.
Information on surgical wait times can be found on the Nova Scotia Wait Times website: waittimes.novascotia.ca
You should contact your surgeon or primary health care provider if your condition changes or becomes worse while you are waiting.
Your surgeon will let you know of any steps you need to take to prepare for your surgery.
It is important that patients know what to expect and feel they have all the information they need about their surgery. We recommend that you make a list of questions to ask your health care team.
The vast majority of surgeries are completed as outpatient surgery. This means that you arrive at the hospital the day of your surgery and return home later that same day.
Other surgeries require a hospital stay. These are known as inpatient surgeries. How long you will stay in hospital depends on the surgery you are having, your overall health, and how quickly you recover after your surgery.
Some patients will be admitted prior to the day of their surgery while other will be admitted the same day. This depends on the surgery you are having, your overall health and if any tests needs to happen prior to your surgery.
Your health care team will talk to you about what to expect.
Your health care team will provide you with instructions and let you know what to expect. What happens the day of surgery can vary between locations and based on the surgery you are having.
Most patients can expect the following:
Your health care team will talk to you about what to expect after surgery and the things you can do to support your recovery.
This might include telling you what side effects might be common, any activities to avoid, how to control pain, how can you help your recovery, signs of infection or other complications to watch for, and where you should call if you have a concern.
Questions you might want to ask your health care team include:
One of our nurses may call you 30 days after your surgery to have a short discussion about your recovery from your procedure. Your participation is voluntary and can help us improve surgical care for our patients.
Orthopedic Assessment Clinics are located throughout the province (see list below) to help patients with hip and/or knee arthritis better manage their pain and increase their quality of life.
After...
Orthopedic surgeons provide orthopedic surgeries at various hospitals across the province. These surgeries fall include:
The cardiac surgery division of the Maritime Heart Centre is located in the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre on Robie Street in central Halifax. Surgeons that work at the...
The clinic is dedicated for clients with cardiovascular disease, pre and post surgical consult. This may entail coronary artery, valvular disease, aneurysmal disease and vascular Peripheral Arterial Disease.
As part...
The Halifax Infirmary Medicine/Surgery program is an interdisciplinary group of clinicians who work collaboratively with other members of the health care team within the medicine/surgery/critical care and transplant services. The...
The Micrographic Surgery program - also known as the Mohs micrographic surgery - is an outpatient program used to treat some forms and cases of skin cancer.
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The Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMF) provides surgery to treat a wide variety of diseases, injuries and defects in the head, neck, face and jaws.
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The Victoria General Medicine/Surgery/Cancer Care program is an interdisciplinary group of clinicians who work collaboratively with other members of the health care team within the medicine/surgery/cancer care and transplant services...
This clinic provides surgical and non-surgical care for people with vascular disease. This includes people with Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD, venous disease and aneurysms).
This pamphlet explains why you may have pain after surgery, why it is important to control your pain, what your health care team will do to help control your pain, what you can do to keep it under control, kinds of pain medication you will get in the hospital, side effects of pain medications, and more. This pamphlet is also available in French.
This pamphlet gives guidelines to follow after having general surgery. This pamphlet is also available in French and Arabic.
Much of Nova Scotia's healthcare program and service information is now available on the YourHealthNS mobile app. Download for free on the Apple Store and Android Apps for Google Play.
