Foundation aims for $225k for Sackville day surgeries, while ER remains ‘on the agenda’ for Horizon
Board members, staff and supporters of the Sackville Memorial Hospital Foundation gathered last week for the launch of a new capital campaign in support of equipment for the hospital’s day surgery programs, with an ambitious goal of raising $225,000, well above last year’s goal of $150,000.
Foundation chair Bill Evans says the reason for the steep increase in fundraising goal is three new, very large, advance donations which put the foundation more than a third of the way to their goal. “This is from people who hadn’t given to us before,” says Evans. “So we decided to have a goal that was bigger.”
Evans says the three new donors have asked to remain either anonymous or uncelebrated, and were referred to the Foundation by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mike Forsythe.
The money raised in this year’s campaign will go towards buying specialized equipment for the day surgery program, including instruments for hip, knee and shoulder arthroscopy, a warming cabinet, a surgical suction system, ear, nose and throat devices, and a training tool called iSimulate.
Horizon says the new equipment will increase the number of patients who could receive surgical care in Sackville, in turn freeing up space in the Moncton hospital for more complex operations.
Sackville resident Jaryd Morrisey, who coaches soccer and badminton at Mount Allison, told those gathered about a knee surgery that helped him heal a longstanding injury, giving him back his active lifestyle.… Continue
Sackville emergency department closed Saturday
The Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency department will be closed this Saturday, October 22.
After it closes Friday at 4pm, the emergency room will not reopen to patients again until Sunday at 8am.
The Horizon Health Network says all patients requiring emergency medical care during the closure will need to be treated at another hospital, and all ambulances will be diverted to other hospitals.
Anyone experiencing a medical emergency can still call 911, or visit the next closest emergency department in Moncton or Amherst.
Horizon says the decision to close the emergency department was made because of a staff shortage.
The network says it is actively working to recruit physicians and nurses to reduce temporary closures and resume services.… Continue
Sackville hospital to double OR capacity in 2023 as part of Horizon operating room expansion plan
Note: This story has been updated with a response from the Department of Health and comments from local retired doctor, Ross Thomas.
Two operating rooms at the Sackville Memorial Hospital are set to get some TLC starting in 2023.
On Friday, Horizon Health announced a plan to invest about $6.4 million in operating rooms (ORs) at the Sackville hospital and three other community hospitals in the province. In Sackville, that means spending about $2 million to upgrade one operating room that’s currently in use, and renovate another room to make it functional again.
The overall plan is to ramp up the use of ORs in community hospitals across the province to help alleviate the surgical backlog for less complex day surgeries, which will in turn allow more complex surgeries to happen more quickly in the regional hospitals.
“These programs will not only increase the number of hip and knee replacements completed each year, but in many cases, they will also increase our capacity for orthopedic surgery, cataract surgery, endoscopy and other procedures,” says acting Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson. “Augmenting the surgical services at these community facilities will also allow our regional hospitals to complete more complex and acute cases, which is a win-win for the broader healthcare system.”
Operating rooms are part of the centralized surgical system at Horizon.… Continue
Sackville emergency department closed again this weekend due to doctor shortage
The Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency department is closed temporarily for another weekend, according to an announcement this afternoon from the Horizon Health Network.
Horizon says that due to “a shortage of physician coverage”, the Sackville emergency department will close at 4pm on Friday, September 16 and reopen Monday, September 19, 2022, at 8am.
All patients requiring emergency medical care will need to be treated at another hospital. The two closest emergency rooms are in Amherst and Moncton.
Horizon says all ambulances will be diverted to other hospitals. Anyone with a medical emergency should still call 911.For non-urgent medical needs, Horizon encourages use of Tele-Care 811, pharmacies, virtual care at eVisitNB.ca, and after-hours clinics. More information on these options is available at sowhywait.ca.
Interim Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson recently re-affirmed the health network’s committment to return to 24/7 service at the Sackville hospital emergency department. Melanson made the committment in a meeting with Sackville Mayor Shawn Mesheau and other local mayors in August, according to Mesheau’s monthly report to council.
The meeting also included Suzanne Johnston, the new trustee appointed by the Higgs government to replace Horizon’s partially elected board of directors. Johnston will be interviewed by MLAs today starting at 2pm at the provincial legislature’s public accounts committee.
Mesheau reported to council that nurse practitioners are now working alongside doctors in the Sackville emergency department to help cover primary care related needs. Mesheau also met with Horizon’s medical director Dr.… Continue
Health care update: doctors needed for Sackville ED, acute care back in the fall, Coon calls for change
There are almost enough nurses hired to fill positions at the Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency department (ED), but the hospital has less than half the doctors it needs.
According to information released recently by Horizon Health Network, nine out of ten registered nurse (RN) positions in the Sackville ED are filled, but only three out of seven physician positions are filled.
The two most recent closures of the Sackville ED were due to a shortage of doctors available to work. At least two doctors stopped working in the department after a recent change by Horizon, which lifted a rule requiring them to work ED shifts in order to maintain a practice in Sackville. The change was meant to help make recruitment of new doctors to the Sackville area easier, since not all family doctors want to work in emergency.
Nurse practitioners and the return of acute care?
In his monthly report to council, Mayor Shawn Mesheau says that interim Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson recently re-affirmed the committment to return 24/7 service to the Sackville hospital ED.
Mesheau and other local mayors met with Melanson and newly appointed trustee Suzanne Johnston in August. Mesheau reported that nurse practitioners are now working alongside doctors in the Sackville ED to help cover primary care related needs. His report also says that several acute care beds are expected to be opening in the Brunswick Unit of Sackville hospital in October.… Continue
Sackville emergency department closed Saturday; NBMS calls for ‘targeted investments’ not political interference
The Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency department (ED) is closed for a second day this week due to a shortage of available physicians.
Horizon Health Network made the announcement at noon Friday that the Sackville ED would close at 4pm as usual, and remain closed until Sunday morning at 8am. This is the second full-day closure this week, and both closures are due to a lack of available physicians to staff the department.
All patients requiring emergency medical care will need to be treated at another hospital, with the closest emergency departments in Amherst and Moncton. Horizon says all ambulances will be diverted to other hospitals.
The Horizon announcement says, “We are actively working to recruit physicians and nurses to reduce temporary closures and resume services to the communities we serve. Horizon remains committed to providing safe and quality care, and the decision to temporarily close the ED is made to ensure safe care for our patients and clients.”
In July, Premier Blaine Higgs suddenly fired former Horizon CEO John Dornan, in reaction to a widely reported death in the waiting room of the emergency department at the Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton. Then-CEO Dornan ordered a review of the death, and was later fired by Higgs in a shake up that also abolished the partially elected boards of directors governing the Horizon and Vitalité health networks, and shuffled Dorothy Shephard out of her position as minister of health.… Continue
Horizon’s Nancy Parker talks about her role re-building the nursing staff at Sackville Memorial Hospital
“Over the summer there could be gaps, but we’re committed to continue to work very hard with our community and within Horizon to close those gaps.”
That’s Nancy Parker, former Sackville Memorial Hospital nurse and Horizon manager, now tasked with the job of recruiting and retaining nurses at the small hospital which has had drastic service reductions due to a lack of available staff in recent years.
The Sackville hospital emergency department has had staffing issues for years, beginning in the months after a previous Horizon administration announced the permanent shutdown of overnight services at a number of small hospitals through the province. That announcement was almost immediately reversed, but the damage had been done, and nursing vacancies at the Sackville Memorial Hospital started to grow.
Then just over a year ago, Horizon announced a drastic reduction in emergency department hours at Sackville Memorial. And in December, at around the same time that Nancy Parker was hired, Horizon closed acute care beds at the hospital.
The message since then has been that Horizon is working towards re-staffing and re-storing services in the Sackville hospital, and Nancy Parker is part of that plan.
CHMA called up Parker last week to find out more about what she’s doing, and how its going.
Horizon CEO optimistic about ER hours increase in fall, despite recent closure
While the Sackville hospital was experiencing a last minute closure of its emergency department last Thursday, Horizon’s CEO John Dornan told those gathered for the network’s annual general meeting that staffing issues at the hospital have been improving, and that the hours for the ER might see an increase in the not-too-distant future, possibly even this fall.
Sackville’s emergency department hours were cut by two thirds to just eight hours per day about a year ago. Then in December, acute care beds at the hospital were converted into alternative level of care (ALC) beds for those awaiting placement in long term care homes. The move accomplished two things: it reduced the staffing pressures to keep acute care open, and it opened up beds for some of the backlog of people awaiting placement in long term care facilities in the region.
New Brunswick’s hospitals are housing many people in the ALC category, generally waiting for a long term placement in a more appropriate facility. Horizon’s annual report says the network averages about one quarter of all its beds allocated to ALC patients.
At Thursday’s annual general meeting, CHMA asked Dornan whether the need for those transition beds would pose a challenge to the return of acute care to Sackville, and how that measured up against the continuing challenges in staffing.
Dornan replied that the issue is still mainly a lack of staffing, and that the Sackville hospital has not been “assigned to be an ALC facility exclusively.”… Continue
Hospital committee joins task force, ambulance service increased to cover ER downtime
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.”… Continue