Tag: CHMA

More private delivery will worsen health-care crisis, critics say

Susie Proulx-Daigle, head of the New Brunswick Union (left) and Megan Mitton, MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar. Photos: Twitter/NBUSNB and Facebook/MeganMittonNB

“All options are on the table” for the health-care system, including more services delivered by the private sector, according to Premier Blaine Higgs.

But his remarks about health-care reform this week have prompted critics to warn that privatization will only worsen conditions in the public health-care system.

Listen to the report that aired on CHMA on Thursday, August 25, 2022:

“There’s a recruitment and retention issue here in this province,” said Susie Proulx-Daigle, head of the New Brunswick Union, which represents several thousand health-care professionals in the province.

“Introducing the private sector is only going to take away professionals out of the public system,” she said.

Higgs made the remarks at a media conference in Moncton on Monday, flanked by three other premiers: Ontario’s Doug Ford, P.E.I.’s Dennis King and Nova Scotia’s Tim Houston, all of them Tory leaders. 

“For me, you know, all options are on the table to understand what are best practices,” he said.

Four Canadian premiers (from left) — Tim Houston of Nova Scotia, Doug Ford of Ontario, Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick and Dennis King of P.E.I. — are pictured during a media conference in Moncton on Monday, August 22, 2022. Screenshot: YouTube/GNB

However, that doesn’t mean patients will have to pay more money out of their own pockets for better health care services, he said.… Continue