Health care town hall next week with Horizon CEO and MLA Megan Mitton
Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is hosting a town hall session with Horizon Health officials next week in Sackville. The Future of Our Healthcare meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 18, from 6:30-8:30pm at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre. Mitton will be joined by Margaret Melanson, CEO of Horizon Health Network, and possibly some other Horizon staffers.
There will be plenty to talk about. This summer, Sackville is losing two family doctors, further adding to the primary care crunch that’s happening across the region and the province. Horizon has promised to open a temporary primary care clinic in the town to help cover that gap. There’s also changes afoot at the Sackville Memorial Hospital as they make room for a future class of nurses from the yet-to-be-accredited Beal University Canada nursing program. And the reduction in emergency room services at Sackville Memorial Hospital continues, with the ER open only 8 hours a day, from 8am to 4pm.
Mitton says the impetus for a healthcare-focussed meeting came out of another community meeting she held in May, where healthcare was one of the key topics. “I do hope that this will be an opportunity for there to be really direct, transparent communication,” says Mitton, “to help people understand what exactly is happening right now, and to be able to ask questions.”
Mitton says she and Melanson will present briefly, and then move to a Q&A session.… Continue