At their meeting on July 6, the ad hoc committee that has been addressing hospital service cuts in Sackville decided to officially join the ranks of the Memramcook-Tantramar Community Task Force, previously known as the Tantramar COVID-19 Task Force.
The committee is made up of concerned citizens, including retired doctors and several former mayors, many of whom had been working on health reform in Sackville ever since last February when sudden cuts were proposed and then withdrawn by Horizon and Vitalité.
In June, shortly after Horizon announced the latest temporary cuts to overnight weekend emergency room service at the Sackville Memorial Hospital, Mayor Shawn Mesheau and Councillor Sabine Dietz were appointed to liaise with the group on behalf of council.
At the time, council debated the role that the town would play in the committee, choosing not to formalize a committee as part of the town’s structure, in favour of a more regional, and flexible approach.
The new working group will be called the Rural Health Action Group, and works under the umbrella of the new MTCTF, now co-chaired by former Sackville mayor Pat Estabrooks, and former councillor and recently retired Open Sky director Margaret Tusz-King.
At council on Monday night, mayor Shawn Mesheau said the new working group will “continue to provide informed thinking and offer constructive, innovative alternatives to past practices, including offering assistance to the Horizon Health Network in recruitment of medical personnel.” The group will also work towards implementing the rural health vision that Sackville provided as part of health reform consultations in the spring.
Councillor Bruce Phinney spoke up at council to say he had been concerned about the move to join the MTCTF, because he worried work of the hospital committee would get lost amongst that of other working groups. But, he said, MTCTF co-chair Pat Estabrooks assured him the cause would not get lost.
Phinney made a plea for bringing back weekend overnight ER coverage, describing his recent experience with a kidney stone attack while the local ER was closed. Phinney said he was lucky because he had access to a vehicle and was able to drive himself to Moncton, despite the pain he was in. His story included kudos for the Moncton ER, which for Phinney, had very short wait times.
Phinney encourgaged residents to keep the new working group informed about their needs for ER service during closures. “If you happen to have a problem with the fact that it’s closed, if you needed to go there but can’t go and had to go to Moncton, tell this working group,” says Phinney. “Because we need to have an account of just how many people are in need of the ER services over the weekend. We can’t let this drop, we have to find a way of solving the problem.”
AMBULANCE NB INCREASING STAFF DURING ER DOWNTIME
On Monday night, Mesheau also reported back about a recent meeting with Ambulance New Brunswick, who advised him that in order to cover ER downtime at the Sackville hospital, ANB has increased their staff by an additional unit for the Sackville region. Mesheau relayed that Sackville is designated as a primary post, which means, “there’s an ambulance available here regularly, and if it has been dispatched or otherwise taken away, there will be an ambulance available within 20 minutes of the area.” The average response time has been nine to 11 minutes, he said.
And in cases of severe injury and trauma, ambulances would always take patients to a trauma care centre, relayed Mesheau, and not to the Sackville ER.
“I know folks are concerned about ER coverage,” said Mesheau, “but I think this kind of solidifies the fact that our ambulance service, when it comes to this type of call, that they’re moving people immediately to where they can get the service that’s required.”