Sackville hospital clinic offers some primary care services to help fill the gap
A new nurse practitioner clinic is offering services out of the Sackville Memorial Hospital’s ambulatory care clinic to those without a family doctor or NP.
What started out as a series of PAP test clinics has morphed into something with a wider range of services, including drivers medicals, handicap parking forms, medication refills (other than narcotics), blood pressure checks, and routine lab testing with follow up. Nurse Practitioner Darla MacPherson says that while she was working in the hospital’s emergency department, she coulld see the need for an “orphan clinic.”
“I could see people, women in particular, coming in who had not had their physicals done for a long time,” says MacPherson, “some who had abnormal PAP smears. And I was like, oh, something has to be done about that. This can’t go on.”
So MacPherson got permission to run a temporary PAP clinic out of the hospital’s ambulatory care section. But it didn’t stop there.
“That very day of starting the PAP clinic, I said to Sarah [Brown, the Sackville Memorial Hospital business manager], in the parking lot, there are people coming to my door all the time looking for med refills, because I’m a Sackville girl, and everybody who knows me knows I’m a nurse practitioner.”
She told Brown, “the need is there.… Continue
Listen here: Community Healthcare Meeting, April 25, 2024
About 400 people gathered on Thursday evening in Sackville for a community meeting on healthcare. CHMA was on site live to broadcast the event.
Above is a recording of the full proceeding, followed by sections organized by speaker below.
Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton
MLA Megan Mitton organized and hosted the meeting, the third one she’s held in Sackville.
“The lack of access to health care for many people in New Brunswick is completely unacceptable,” said Mitton to the crowd. “And sometimes it causes terrible outcomes.”
“The day after the 2014 election, my dad ended up in the hospital,” recalled Mitton. “And I saw first hand the gaps in the system and how patients fall through them. Unfortunately, things have gotten worse since that time, and we can’t blame it all on the pandemic. There are systemic issues that have been building for a really long time.”
Margaret Melanson, CEO of Horizon Health Network
“It’s our third time being here with you, with a public forum to talk about health care and developments that are happening in your community,” said Melanson, “and also for us to be here, accountable to all of you, the citizens of New Brunswick.”
“We know that primary care is the foundation of our health care system,” said Melanson.… Continue