When the last doctor in Weymouth, N.S., retired, he left his patients enough refill prescriptions for a year.

Dr. Don Westby hoped a replacement would have taken over his work by then, but a year later the community still has no doctor.

"It was a large number of communities affected by this decision. It wasn't just the village of Weymouth," he said on CBC's Information Morning Wednesday.

He estimates he cared for between 2,500 and 3,000 patients living in villages and hamlets around Weymouth when he retired in November 2015. His clinic, which was staffed by three doctors six years ago, now sits empty most days. Some people get care in Digby or Clare, while others — including his own wife — simply don't have a doctor.

No billing number for community

Westby said he and other locals tried to recruit a new doctor and hired a recruitment company. They also tried to arrange for doctors in Clare to act as local doctors in the Weymouth area.

"Unfortunately Clare, because of the numbers involved, were unable to commit to that. We were left in a scramble at the last minute," he said.

The recruitment plan fell apart when the Nova Scotia Health Authority removed the local billing number for the "approved vacancy," meaning it wouldn't hire a doctor in Weymouth.

"We weren't getting any help from the Nova Scotia Health Authority. In fact they hijacked us. We didn't even know this was in their plans — to remove physicians from the Weymouth area — until the very last minute," Westby said.

Now, sick people go to the emergency room in Digby, he said, or travel to Kentville or Yarmouth for routine appointments.

"I just see more and more trouble down the road. They've had a year to act on it and they've done absolutely nothing."

'They don't want practices of 3,000 patients'

The health authority says it has tried and failed to retain doctors in small communities like Weymouth, and it knows that the solo physician model is not working. New recruits consistently say that's not what they want to do.

"We know that it's much more difficult to recruit physicians than what it used to be," said Dr. Crystal Todd, the head of family medicine for the Nova Scotia Health Authority's western district.

"Physicians don't want to be in a small community by themselves. They don't want to be in a place without support. They don't want practices of 3,000 patients, as poor Dr. Westby had for all his years that he practiced," she said.

"They don't want to be on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year anymore. They're looking for a work-life balance."

Nurse practioner role to be expanded

Todd said Weymouth has been receiving support from Clare, and that there may still be a doctor visiting Weymouth in the future from a team based in a larger centre.

However, she said that person would not be in the community seven days a week.

Westby said Weymouth has had a doctor since 1831 and it built its own clinic in 2003. Now, a nurse practitioner uses the clinic about once a week.

Todd said the nurse practitioner has been travelling from Clare to Weymouth and the health authority is trying to expand on that support.