A pilot program that provides rides to non-urgent medical appointments in northern Nova Scotia will end Dec. 1, leaving some rural patients worried they will have to cancel care they cannot otherwise reach.

The Northern Zone Transportation Pilot has operated through Nova Scotia Health for three years, serving East Hants, Colchester, Cumberland and Pictou counties. Supported by federal and provincial funding, it was intended to improve access to health care, according to reporting by Global News journalists Rebecca Lau and Mitchell Bailey.

Nova Scotia Health said in a statement that “between exhausting federal funds and the complexities of rural, non-medical transportation, the program quickly became unsustainable.” The health authority says it is contacting affected patients to tell them about alternative transportation options.

For Wanda Tingley, a 65-year-old Lantz resident with a traumatic brain injury, the service has provided a way to attend frequent medical appointments in Halifax. She told Global News that a one-way taxi trip for treatment costs $123 and that she lives on old age security.

Tingley said there are no public transit options in her area. When the pilot began in 2023, she used it almost daily; she now relies on it a couple of times a week.

“I do have medical appointments in December, but I’ll have to cancel them,” she said.

Andrew Doughty, owner of Handy Cabs, estimates his company makes 250 trips a month under the program. He said passengers include people who cannot afford transportation and people who can no longer legally drive. Some travel for cancer treatment.

Patients have been calling to ask what they should do when the rides end, Doughty said, but he has no answer for them.

Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin is calling on the premier to reverse the decision and reinstate the service. She said seniors, people with disabilities and residents living in poverty depend on it, warning that its cancellation will prevent some people from accessing health care.

Sources