New Brunswick poised to join class-action lawsuit against opioid industry for health damages
A proposed law would allow New Brunswick to join a multimillion dollar class-action lawsuit against more than 40 pharmaceutical players involved in the opioid industry.
Bill 58, the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, is meant to help recoup funds which the health-care system has lost because of the opioid epidemic.
The government bill went through second reading in the legislature on Tuesday, and so far appears to have the support of all parties.
Listen to the report from CHMA:
Local MLA and Green Party health critic Megan Mitton (Memramcook-Tantramar) told the Legislative Assembly that any funds won through legal action should be used to deal with addiction-related issues.
For example, she called for more safe consumption sites, facilities where people can use substances indoors under the supervision of trained staff who can intervene in case of an overdose.
Ensemble Moncton recently opened an overdose prevention site in downtown Moncton, the first of its kind in New Brunswick. The organization also installed a vending machine-style service in Sackville to distribute material such as sterile syringes.
A wave of overdoses in Saint John has also led to calls for a safe consumption site in that city.
Among other changes, Mitton called for more widespread availability of Naloxone kits, which can rapidly reverse an overdose.
“We hear from firefighters, we hear from other first responders that they’re administering Naloxone kits regularly,” she said.… Continue
Thousands of orphaned patients expected as two Sackville doctors close up shop this summer
Thousands of patients in Sackville have been getting bad news from two longstanding primary care doctors in the area. Dr. Catherine Johnston and Dr. Andrea Wall are both closing their practices this summer.
After 23 years treating patients in Sackville, Dr. Johnston is retiring at the end of June. Dr. Wall has been practicing in Sackville for 18 years, and is closing her practice on August 4 as she moves on to another position in Moncton. Neither doctor has been able to find a replacement, which means all their patients will become ‘orphaned’ in the system.
There are rumours of other possible closures of practices, but so far they are proving unfounded. CHMA reached out to Dr. Beatrice Milne and Dr. Graeme Stewart, neither of whom have existing plans to retire, despite rumours to the contrary. Both Dr. Milne and Dr. Stewart will continue to see their patients in Sackville.
Another rumoured closure is not what it seems: Dr. Allison Dysart is hoping to move his practice closer to his home in the Cocagne-Grand Digue area. If possible, Dr. Dysart plans to keep his current patient roster. The longtime Sackville physician has been commuting to Sackville from Cocagne since last fall.
Meanwhile, Drs. Wall and Johnston are advising their patients to register with Patient Connect NB as soon as possible to get on the ‘first come, first served’ list that promises to match people with primary care providers as they become available.… Continue
Inquest called into ER waiting room death of Darrell Mesheau
A coroner’s inquest has been called into the ER waiting room death of Darrell Mesheau, elder brother of former Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau and former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Mesheau.
The 78-year-old Mesheau died while awaiting care in a Fredericton ER waiting room last July. Although his identity was not officially released until an inquest announcement on Tuesday, the circumstances of his death were widely reported and led to major health care leadership changes.
Three days following Mesheau’s death, Premier Blaine Higgs held a press conference to announce the re-assignment of then health minister Dorothy Shephard, the dissolution of partially-elected boards of Horizon and Vitalité health networks, and the firing of then-Horizon CEO John Dornan, who was only 4 months into his 5 year contract.
A Fredericton area support worker said he waited alongside Mesheau in the ER waiting room at the Dr. Everett Chalmers hospital in the early hours of July 12. John Staples described the scene in the full emergency room in a post on Facebook. Mesheau was waiting in discomfort, says Staples, and then appeared to fall asleep. When a hospital staffer came to check on waiting patients, they noticed Mesheau’s condition and called a code blue.
Darrell Mesheau served as a diplomat in the Canadian Foreign Service. He was also a film and theatre actor, a tour guide and avid historian, among other pursuits. … Continue
Maine’s Beal University wants to set up a nursing program in Canada, with classrooms at the Sackville Memorial Hospital
Sackville has been home to a university for just over 180 years, and in 2023, it might just become home to a second, if Beal University Canada gets the green light from the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission (MPHEC) to operate as a university in the province.
But a common location in Sackville is where the similarities between Mount A and the new Beale University Canada end. Beal is a private university, and is planning to offer just one program, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. And its classes won’t take place on a traditional campus. Nursing students would spend their first 12 months in online classes, and then would move on to clinical studies inside the Sackville Memorial Hospital.
“Through a wonderful partnership with Horizon Health and Sackville Memorial Hospital, Beal University Canada will be setting up clinical classes in the Sackville hospital,” says Holly McKnight, president of Beal University Canada. McKnight is also dean of health sciences, business and technology at Beal University US, which started out as a business college in Bangor, Maine in 1891, and now delivers 27 programs, including nursing programs.
McKnight says that a couple of years ago, just before the pandemic, the government of New Brunswick approached Beal University about a partnership. That started out with an announcement in October of up to $600,000 in student grants for students who complete a Bachelor of Science in Nursing through Beal University.… Continue
‘It is normal, it is common, it is safe’: new network to address lack of information about abortion care, and other access issues
Back in January 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canada’s Criminal Code provisions related to abortion violated women’s Charter guarantee of security of the person, and were therefore unconstitutional. That decision signified the decriminalization of abortion in Canada.
Martha Paynter says the decision was “exceptional and important,” and one that Canadians don’t recognize enough. “35 years ago, we became the only country in the entire world to have completely decriminalized care,” says Paynter. “And we remain the only country in the entire world with completely decriminalized care.”
Paynter is a UNB nursing professor and the spokesperson for the newly founded New Brunswick Abortion Care Network, a group of 20 advocates working in the fields of nursing, obstetrics, family practice, pharmacy and health administration.
“As healthcare providers, we lean on Dr. Henry Morgantaler’s legacy,” says Paynter. “We want to carry on in his footsteps, always expanding access to care.”
CHMA spoke with Martha Paynter to find out more about the New Brunswick Abortion Care Network.
Paynter says despite Canada’s singular place in the global landscape, there are still challenges to abortion access, and one of the biggest is misinformation and lack of information.
“We need to be more forthright and familiar with these very basic and essential parts of our reproductive health repertoire,” says Paynter. “We’ve just had so many years of treating abortion like it was some secret special service… And it is normal, it is common, it is safe.”… Continue
‘Hugely disappointed’ in Higgs’ health shake up, says rural health group co-chair John Higham
John Higham is not very hopeful about the shake-up in New Brunswick health care announced last week by Premier Blaine Higgs. In fact, the former Sackville mayor and co-chair of the Rural Health Action Group says he is “hugely disappointed” in Higgs’ announcement on Friday that he is firing Horizon CEO John Dornan, dissolving Horizon and Vitalité boards, and shuffling his cabinet ministers around to put Bruce Fitch in charge of health and Dorothy Shephard in charge of social development.
Higham has been involved in defending health care services in Sackville since the “first significant threat” to the hospital took place while he was mayor, in February 2020. Since then, the overarching issue he’s observed is that “health services have just been divorced from community needs and desire to help.” Higham felt the work he and the other volunteers of the Rural Health Action Group have done in the past while was working towards changing that.
“We saw some great progress in the last few years,” Higham says, “particularly with our collaboration with Horizon and with Dr. Dornan’s understanding of what he saw in rural [health], and what was required. And now I just don’t see any of that. I’m really frustrated with this announcement.”
Here the full interview with John Higham here:
