Former Sackville mayor John Higham set to become Liberal candidate in Tantramar
On today’s show, we talk with soon-to-be-nominated Liberal candidate for Tantramar, John Higham. The former Sackville mayor says, “it’s time to turn Mr. Higgs out,” and believes a Liberal majority government is the way do to that. Higham will be officially nominated at a meeting in Sackville on Monday.
Plus in briefs, about a third of workers in Atlantic Canada make less than $20 an hour, and Tyler Murphy is due back in court today.
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Two more RNs, four more ER docs needed to bring back 24-7 emergency department in Sackville
Horizon Health Network says it has recruited and onboarded five registered nurses (RNs) to the Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency department, and that there are now five nurse practitioners working in the department.
But there’s still more new staff needed before the emergency department can return to 24-7 service. In a statement released Monday, the health network says it needs two more RNs and four emergency physicians in order to safely resume regular hours at the Sackville ER. In total, Horizon says that 19 of 24 RN positions are currently filled at the hospital, which includes the emergency department and the Brunswick inpatient unit.
“I’m really pleased to see that they’ve taken this step,” says Rural Health Action Group co-chair John Higham, “to put the data out there, and commit to collaborating.”
The Horizon communiqué also gave an update on plans for renovations at the hospital including construction of a second operating room, renovations to the existing operating room, and repairs and renovations to a section of the ER which sustained flood damage during Hurricane Fiona in September. All those renovations are expected to begin by late spring.
Higham says the $2 million capital investment by Horizon is a sign that the network is “looking at how rural hospitals can help the bigger ones.” The second OR theatre will enhance surgical access for the region, says Horizon, “providing additional capacity for orthopedic surgeries such as hip and knee replacements and, potentially, a wider variety of surgical procedures moving forward.”… Continue
‘This is going to be a tough year’: Christmas Cheer gears up to help struggling families celebrate the season
The lights are up in downtown Sackville, the first Moonlight Madness is behind us, and craft fair season has started in earnest. The holidays are coming, and for many, that means a season when lower incomes and a lack of resources are more painful than usual.
Enter Christmas Cheer, a program run by the Sackville Community Association (SCA) for the past three decades, which provides grocery vouchers and gifts for Sackville households in need.
SCA treasurer John Higham describes the program as, “kind of the feeling of Christmas, where a community can help people who don’t have as much resources as others.” Higham says hundreds of current and former Sackville area residents support Christmas Cheer each year, with cash donations and/or gifts.
Hear John Higham on CHMA’s Tantramar Report here:
A donation box is set up at the Royal Bank downtown to collect cash and cheques, and the SCA website also accepts online donations. As a registered charity, the SCA can issue charitable tax receipts for those donations, when information is provided. For gifts, Higham says the group welcomes new items with a target age range specified. Gifts can be dropped off at the Sackville United Church downtown between noon and 4:30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The last day to drop off gifts is December 9, 2022, but the SCA continues to receive cash donations throughout the year, and uses everything over and above what’s needed to run Christmas Cheer to support families the rest of the year.… 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:
Loss of two doctors in Sackville emergency department related to policy change meant to help recruitment
Horizon health network has confirmed that the Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency department recently lost two doctors who had been working in the department.
Dr. Jody Enright, Horizon’s medical director in the Moncton area, says the two left emergency, “to focus on their respective family practices.”
The Sackville hospital emergency department has been closed for two additional days in the past two weeks due to a lack of physician availability. That’s on top of already reduced hours that have been in place for over a year, due to mostly to a lack of nursing staff.
The decision by the two doctors to leave the emergency department was made possible by a recent policy change at Horizon. Previously, doctors in Sackville were required to work shifts at the emergency department in order to maintain a practice in the area. Enright says that condition, “has presented a significant barrier to our recruitment efforts in Sackville, as very few candidates are interested in managing a family practice while also taking on additional duties in the [emergency department].”
Enright says the decision to remove the requirement was made “in consultation with and supported by the medical team.” She believes the change will significantly enhance the chances of “identifying, recruiting and ultimately retaining more family physicians and Emergency Department physicians in Sackville moving forward.“
John Higham, former Sackville mayor and co-chair of the Rural Health Action Group describes the decision as a positive response by Horizon, and one that has been tried elsewhere.… Continue
“A terrific stroke from Horizon”: former Horizon manager to help restore service at Sackville hospital
Horizon Health has hired a recently retired executive director and former nurse to help retain and recruit health care workers at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. Nancy Parker retired recently from her position as executive director of the Moncton and Sackville hospitals, a position taken over by Christa Wheeler-Thorne in the summer of 2021. Parker has now taken on the interim, part-time role at the hospital.
Members of the Rural Health Action Committee are confident that Parker is a solid choice for the job, according to co-chair John Higham. Those who know Parker “speak extraordinarily highly of her abilities, and the attitude in which she goes about the work at the hospital and on all health services,” says Higham.
CHMA has requested an interview with Parker, to hear first hand about her work at the hospital.
The move to hire Parker is “a terrific stroke from Horizon”, says Higham, and what’s more, the move came from the health network, without the Rural Health Action Group directly asking for it.
“They identified [Parker] as an individual that would have great credibility to go back into the hospital and begin to address some of those impacts that she will see there, in staffing and in the organization of the hospital,” says Higham. “Most of us see that as a really big step forward to get that hospital back up to the condition it needs to be.”… Continue
Wednesday on TR: Higham on Horizon’s newest hire to help the Sackville hospital, and Mesheau’s reaction to forced amalgamation
Listen to Tantramar Report for the following stories:
Horizon Health hires a former administrator to help restore service at the Sackville hospital
Horizon Health has hired a recently retired executive director and former nurse to help retain and recruit health care workers at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. Nancy Parker has taken on the interim, part-time role at the hospital.
Members of the Rural Health Action Committee are confident that Parker is a solid choice for the job, according to co-chair John Higham. Tantramar Report spoke with Higham on Tuesday to find out more.
Mayor Shawn Mesheau on forced amalgamation
Just before Tantramar Report closed up shop for 2021, we spoke with Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau to get his reaction to news from the provincial government, announcing they had ignored a proposed alternative to forced amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester, and surrounding areas.
As we embark on the year that will see the town of Sackville dissolved and reformed as a larger entity, the so-called Entity 40 — we revisit that conversation on Tantramar Report.
Mount A hires new chaplain
Mount Allison University has hired a new chaplain. Reverend Ellie Hummel will be joining Mount Allison as multi-faith chaplain and spiritual care coordinator starting on March 7th. Hummel is an ordained minister with the United Church of Canada. She previously worked as chaplain and coordinator of the multi-faith and spiritual centre at Concordia University in Montreal, and before that oversaw congregations in rural Saskatchewan.… Continue
Wednesday on TR: Hospital rally today; Higham on Horizon’s response to frustration in Sackville
Listen to Tantramar Report for the following stories:
Hospital rally Wednesday at 11:30am
Sackville and area residents are rallying today at 11:30am at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. The Rural Health Action Group is asking people to come protest the recent service closures at the hospital and call for action on the crisis. Guest speakers will be presenting at the rally. Masks are mandatory and parking is available just down the street at Main Street Baptist church and Moneris.
Interview: John Higham on hospital cuts, Rural Health Action Group and and Horizon’s response
On Tantramar Report we talk with John Higham, former Sackville mayor and co-chair of the Rural Health Action Group. Higham talks about the group’s work, his reaction to comments from Horizon Health CEO John Dornan at Monday’s town council meeting, and the path forward for the Sackville hospital.
Also on Tantramar Report, we look at what Horizon officials had to say at Sackville town council on Monday.
Horizon issues call to nurses to come work in Sackville
After promising action on recruitment at Monday’s Sackville town council meeting, Horizon CEO John Dornan issued a statement on Tuesday, addressed to “current and future New Brunswick nurses.” In the statement, Dornan pitches Sackville as a “friendly, welcoming and progressive community” and offers nurses financial incentives for certain eligible positions, including a one-time incentive of $10,000 in exchange for an agreement to work for three years.… Continue
Rural Health Action Group calls for immediate action to repair “fundamentally broken” relationship with Horizon, province
The co-chairs of the Memramcook-Tantramar Community Task Force and the Rural Health Action Group are angry, and they’re not playing nice anymore.
In a strongly-worded letter addressed to the premier, Minister of Health Dorothy Shephard, Horizon CEO John Dornan, and other Horizon managers, the group says the relationship with Horizon management and the department of health has been “fundamentally broken” after an announcement on Friday informing them the Sackville Memorial Hospital would be closing its acute care unit.
Read the full letter of response here (pdf).
“We are embarrassed by our efforts to recruit people for jobs you seem to have no plans to actually offer. We are humiliated in the face of increasing numbers of citizens who ‘told us so’ about the government’s disingenuous nature. We believe that you don’t even understand your own Action Plan; it’s folly to think you can do ‘business as usual’ and then expect different results,” states the letter, signed by former Sackville mayors Pat Estabrooks and John Higham, and former councillor Margaret Tusz-King.
The Rural Health Action Group has been mobilizing since the summer, when Horizon announced cuts to ER service at the Sackville hospital, reducing it to 8 hours per day on weekends. That has since been expanded to a full seven days.
The group secured $15,000 in funding from the Town of Sackville to put toward recruitment activities, and has plans to work with the hospital foundation to fundraise further.
Group leaders were meeting with Horizon management, and had been informed that the most recent cuts to ER service were being made in order to maintain staffing levels for acute care.… Continue
Horizon to close acute care beds in Sackville
Horizon has informed local leaders of plans to temporarily close inpatient acute care at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. The network plans to convert all inpatient beds at the hospital to transitional care beds for patients who are waiting for long term care placement.
On Friday evening, Pat Estabrooks and John Higham, the co-chairs of the Memramcook-Tantramar Rural Health Action Group, received a letter from Horizon’s VP of clinical services, Eileen MacGibbon, making the announcement. MacGibbon gave no timeline, and attributed the move to the ongoing nursing shortage at the hospital.
The letter says that “going forward, Sackville patients who require acute care will be transferred to Horizon’s The Moncton Hospital.”
This latest move, although deemed temporary, means services at the Sackville Memorial Hospital are even more reduced today than they would have been had cuts announced in February 2020 gone through.
Just under 2 years ago, then Horizon CEO Karen McGrath announced a reduction in services to six rural hospitals, including the Sackville Memorial Hospital. The plan would have reduced existing 24/7 ER services by about one third, down to 16 hours per day, between 8am and midnight. It would also have converted acute care beds at the hospital to long term care beds.
After a massive outcry across the province, including protests at community hospitals, the provincial government pulled the plug. The plan was scrapped and a province wide consultation was promised before a new plan would be proposed.… Continue