Bedford Waterfront Health Clinic

07/21/2022

Good morning everyone! Just a heads up to our patients that we are going on 3+ weeks with no air conditioning in our clinic. We do not have any windows in our clinic rooms that we can open. We have a few fans and are trying to circulate the air the best we can. We continue to advocate for air conditioning to be restored in a timely manner.

Given the heat advisory, we are asking our booked patients to please be prepared. You may wish to remain in an air conditioned vehicle until closer to your appointment time. Please stay hydrated.

*Masks remain mandatory, as we are a medical facility.

Please be kind to our staff and who have been working in these conditions and trying to continue to provide the best care they can.

Should the clinic become an unsafe working environment due to the heat advisory, we will communicate this to booked patients.

*this post will not be monitored. Please call the clinic if you have concerns.

12/09/2021

Good morning everyone. It's a snowy morning and we hope everyone is taking it safe on the roads. Because of this, and for the safety of our own staff, we have had to delay opening our front reception services until at least 11am.

If you had an in person appointment today and are unable to make it due to the weather, please give us a call after 11 and our staff will be happy to assist you.

Several of our physicians have been impacted by this as well and we will be individually contacting you if you are affected.

Otherwise, if you have a booked in person appointment and you have not been contacted, please assume that it is still booked as same, as many of our physicians have been able to make it to the clinic and their schedules have not been impacted.

Have a safe and happy snow day!

02/08/2021

Good morning everyone! We hope you’re all staying safe in the snow. The clinic will open a bit later today (around 12pm) to allow our staff to safely travel in. This means the phone lines will be delayed in opening this morning. Telemedicine appointments will still be going on as scheduled. If you had a scheduled appointment in the clinic this morning, you’ll be hearing from a staff member with arrangements for this. Thank you for your understanding and we hope you stay safe!

05/05/2020

Please see this great information from Doctors Nova Scotia. We are here and continue to be here.

With the onset of COVID-19 and physical distancing protocols, many people are wondering what to expect from their primary care providers. Don't put your health on the back burner. If you've been delaying or cancelling appointments, you may be putting your health at risk. Most family practices are st...

03/31/2020

Good morning everyone. We just want to clarify a few things.
1. We remain open to scheduled appointments! We unfortunately cannot accommodate drop in requests. Many of our appointments have been transitioned to a telemedicine format. For urgent appointments, or appointments that cannot be addressed via telemedicine, in person appointments will still occur after a screening protocol. Please see our earlier posts for more information around this. If you require an appointment with your physician, please call us.
2. Physicians are still seeing labs coming through to their mailboxes for routine screening (ie cholesterol, sugars). These were requested by NSHA to not occur during the COVID-19 pandemic. We kindly ask that unless your doctor has requested that you book an appointment with blood collection to get your bloodwork done for an urgent reason, or for something that requires frequent monitoring (ie an INR), that you defer all other routine screens until the lab opens again.

03/22/2020

In response to Nova Scotia's State of Emergency, we would like to issue the following updates:
1. Appointments that can be rebooked in a telemedicine format, will be. Some medical needs cannot be addressed in this fashion, and for those, in person assessments will still continue (ie well baby care).
2. In an effort to keep the numbers in our waiting rooms to a minimum and maintain 6 ft minimum distancing, we ask that if you are being assessed in person, that you do not bring anyone to your appointment with you. The ONLY exceptions will be a child who requires a guardian or someone who requires assistance. Otherwise, if extra family members arrive with you for your appointment, they will be asked to leave.
3. If the waiting room becomes busy, we will be requesting for you to wait in your car with a phone number that we can call when we are ready for you to present for your appointment.
4. In an effort to protect our front staff, we ask that you remain 6 feet from them upon checking in.
5. If you have travelled outside the province as of 6am Monday March 23, 2020, you are required to self-isolate for 14 days. This is in addition to international travel.
6. If you have cough or fever, do not come to the clinic. Please discuss with front staff regarding the next steps if you have a scheduled appointment.

We have had a number of cases of patients not disclosing their coughs or travel history within the past few weeks until in the room with physicians. This doesn't allow the physician to appropriately put on their personal protective equipment and make themselves safe. As of today, not disclosing this information could violate the Health Protection Act and you could be held criminally responsible. Please be honest, as it helps keep others and physicians healthy and safe so they can continue to help you.

03/18/2020

This does NOT impact your current appointment with your doctor at our clinic. However, if you have a specialist appointment, booked imaging appointment, or upcoming surgery, etc, please read below:

Beginning Wednesday, March 18:
· All elective outpatient visits are cancelled. Individual services will contact patients whose appointments are proceeding. Dialysis, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and mental health and addictions appointments will continue.
· All non-urgent diagnostic imaging appointments will be rescheduled and walk-in x-ray services will be closed. Cancer Care imaging, PET scans and other time-sensitive exams will continue.
· Outpatient blood collection services will not close completely but services will be reduced (i.e. reduction in hours and number of locations). Details regarding these changes will be communicated as soon as they are available.
· All same-day admission and elective surgical procedures are postponed. Cancer and urgent/emergency procedures will continue.
· As currently-occupied inpatient beds become available, they will be held open to create capacity to establish COVID units in designated hospitals.

Please see the link below for the full details

Many NSHA services reduced or suspended as part of COVID-19 response Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - 02:36PM (photo credit: David Blomme) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tues. March 17, 2020 Many Nova Scotia Health Authority services are being reduced or suspended until further notice as part of the effort to conta...

03/16/2020

Effective immediately March 16, 2020 we are moving towards a telemedicine platform with as many patients as possible. We wish to limit people in our waiting room to maintain social distancing. We understand this is going to cause a lot of confusion and we ask for your patience as we re-organize schedules and determine who is appropriate to be assessed by phone. We understand that not every concern can be addressed with this platform.

In the interim we would request those who are visiting us for appointments adhere to the following guidelines:
1. If you have travelled within the past 14 days, please do not come to the office. Please call the office and let reception know you have travelled. If appropriate, a telemedicine appointment will be scheduled.
2. Please do not come to our clinic with cough or fever, regardless of travel history. If you believe you may have come in contact with COVID-19 we ask that you call 811. We are aware the wait times are long, but this is a central triage system and the end result would you being referred to this system.
3. In order to maintain social distancing, we ask that you limit the number of family members you bring to clinic with you.
4. Please clean your hands with Purell upon entry and exit of the clinic.

We also would request that you not complete any routine diabetes or cholesterol bloodwork unless specifically indicated by your doctor in the coming weeks. This is by direct request of the lab to help with pandemic planning and treatment.

A message from Dr. Wentzel:
Dr. Wentzel will be solely telemedicine based for an indefinite amount of time. Should an urgent concern arise that cannot be assessed by this platform, one of her colleagues will assess you. However, for non-urgent concerns, appointments that cannot be assessed via telemedicine will be deferred to a later date. If you have an appointment booked, you will be contacted whether this appointment will be switched to the telemedicine format versus rebooked with another physician or another date at a future time.

Thank you for your understanding,

Dr. Jessica Wentzel

A message from Dr. Bradley:
Dr. Bradley has recently returned from a vacation abroad and although she doesn’t have any symptoms and hasn’t been asked to self isolate she is taking the precaution of working from home this week. In response to the recommendations of social distancing to prevent the potential spread of COVID 19 she will changing many appointments to telemedicine and delaying routine non urgent visits in the next upcoming weeks.

If you are running out of a medication, leave your name and a phone number to be reached at along with the pharmacy you are going to. Dr. Bradley will call you to discuss the medication.

If you have a medical concern, Dr. Bradley will do her best to handle it with a phone visit and direct you to seek other care if not able to be completed with a non face to face visit.

Thank you for your understanding,

Dr. Sarah Bradley

02/07/2020

We know it’s awfully icy out there! ❄️ We are open. Please call us if you are unable to make your appointment due to the weather.

01/08/2020

Good morning! At this time we are planning to open as scheduled. However, as the weather continues to develop we will be continually reassessing and should our hours of operation change today we will update you all immediately!

10/09/2019

We are getting lots of calls from interested folks about flu shots (which is excellent)! Flu shots are not expected to be in until after October 15th (at the earliest). We will update you once we have our supply. Happy Thanksgiving!