On today’s CHMA daily news:
- The Atlantic bubble takes shape tomorrow;
- Horizon CEO Karen McGrath on thwarted health care cuts;
- Service NB to reopen service centres and extend licences;
- a new instalment of the Check-In with yoga instructor Kevin Brazier;
- and the COVID numbers update for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
COVID Update
The province reported no new cases of COVID-19 again on Wednesday.
There are just 3 remaining active cases in New Brunswick.
Three people are in hospital, with two in intensive care.
The province reported 272 new test results Wednesday.
There were 2078 tests reported in the past week, just below the threshold recommended by Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell in May.
People are still being asked to get tested if they have just one symptom of COVID-19.
Nova Scotia announced another new case of COVID-19, also from a person who had travelled, this time outside of Canada.
It’s not known whether the person in question had been self-isolating after their arrival in the province.
Atlantic bubble takes shape tomorrow
The border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is about to get a lot busier.
Starting tomorrow, residents of the Atlantic provinces will be able to cross provincial borders without the requirement for 14 days of self-isolation.
The Atlantic bubble will make a significant impact on quality of life for Tantramar residents, many of who have family and friends on both sides of the provincial border.
It’s not clear yet if the Atlantic bubble will be enough to salvage the year for tourism operators.
The president of the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick told CBC that the Atlantic bubble provides more hope, but it’s not enough.
Carol Alderdice says only 33 per cent of tourists coming to New Brunswick are from Atlantic Canada, based on previous years.
Mount Allison President Jean Paul Boudreau told Sackville Town Council that the Atlantic bubble would make a great difference for students and enrolment numbers at the university.
Most of Mount Allison’s students come from the Atlantic provinces, with 40% coming from New Brunswick.
Horizon CEO Karen McGrath calls thwarted health care cuts “reasonable”
A controversial, pre-pandemic plan to make major cuts at the Sackville Memorial Hospital and five other hospitals in the province is rearing its head again.
The CEO of Horizon Health Network brought up the proposed cuts at the organization’s AGM last week.
Karen McGrath told the Horizon board the plan to cut services in six rural hospitals was “reasonable.”
The plan, announced on February 11th, included shutting down the emergency room overnight, eliminating all acute-care beds and closing the operating room where day surgeries are performed.
After five days of protests and outcry, Premier Blaine Higgs scrapped the plan and said government would first consult with people in the six rural communities where hospitals would have been affected.
Last week McGrath said the problems the cuts where meant to fix haven’t gone away, and won’t go away without “meaningful action.”
McGrath told the Horizon board of directors that, “Doing nothing isn’t an option.”
Sackville Mayor John Higham says he was not surprised by McGrath’s comments.
Higham recently spoke with a group of mayors from areas affected by the proposed cuts, and discussed rumours that the Horizon CEO had been making similar statements.
Higham says he “absolutely disagrees” with McGrath’s conclusions, and that the government has not been forthcoming with showing the rationale behind the proposed plan.
Requests for access to data that back up the proposed cuts have been turned down, says Higham.
Click to listen:
“So I think it’s a typical case of, I’ve got a really, really good argument, but I can’t tell you why. And I’m not going to show you my work, but it’s right. Sounds like a kid in elementary school to me, quite frankly… I think she has an obligation to prove it. And right now they’re taking steps to not prove that it was actually the best possible decision.“
Higham says both the world and the health care system have changed in the last three or four months.
He cites the example of cross-agency cooperation between Vitalité and Horizon Health which freed up 150 beds in advance of the virus, and moved many people waiting in hospitals into long term care homes.
He also cites the experience in Italy, where a centralized hospital system has been blamed for contributing to the severity of the coronavirus crisis in the country.
Higham says many of the assumptions behind the decision to cut rural health services are no longer valid.
Click to listen:
“So I can’t see how we can accept that the previous decision, on data they won’t show us, in conditions that were different, is still valid. I simply don’t think that that’s going to fly with anybody who is really thinking about this. What we’re increasingly saying, what we really need now is a real true health summit, about public services in the province.“
Higham says the steering committee formed in response to the proposed cuts went on hiatus when COVID struck, but they are now ready to get back into action.
Higham says he will be making an argument for a health summit, so that consultations on the proposed cuts take in the bigger picture of health care across the province.
Click to listen:
“I mean, we created these corporate boxes, as I call them, to make health decisions within those boxes. And what I think we’ve seen is that public policy for health services is bigger than that. And you’re going to get very short term operational decisions within those boxes. But if you take a larger look, you will probably have a more effective public policy for health.”
New Brunswick extends licences one more month
The New Brunswick government is extending eligible licences and other documentation for one more month.
All licences, registrations, certificates and permits issued by the province and valid as of March 16, 2020 will remain valid until July 31st, unless suspended by a court or other authority.
Service NB reopens and prepares for second wave
Service New Brunswick will open all 33 of its service centres by July 13.
Most services can still be accessed online or over the phone.
Service New Brunswick says it’s looking at ways to offer more high demand services online like the written drivers test and change of address.
Service New Brunswick Minister Sherry Wilson says the plan is to increase online and Teleservices as part of preparations for a possible second wave of COVID-19.
Customer care agents have been working throughout the pandemic, answering more than 30,000 calls to the new COVID-19 information line, as well as processing the services available online and through Teleservices.
The Check-In: Sackville Recreation Outdoor Yoga with Kevin Brasier
And last but not least today, we have another instalment of the Check-In.
This time, Erica Butler checks in with Sackville Recreation Yoga Instructor Kevin Brasier, who is starting free outdoor yoga classes this week at the Lorne Street soccer fields.
You may recognize Kevin’s voice from CHMA airwaves. He’s the host of Allegro on Tuesday mornings at 10am, which brings you two hours of hand-picked classical music.
Here’s the latest instalment of the Check-In:
AUDIO CHECK IN KEVIN YOGA
CHMA Daily News is hosted Mahalia Thompson-Onichino, and produced by Erica Butler, with contributions from Bruce Wark, Geoff de Gannes, and James Anderson.
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