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. “It’s the reason that many of you seek care, and it’s also the reason that many of you come to our emergency departments, because you don’t have another place to go.”
Melanson said Horizon’s primary care strategy is using a “medical home” model, which she said is a “comprehensive care strategy, that is to be neighborhood-based, centered in primary care.”
Richard Lemay, Horizon Director of Primary Healthcare for Zone 1
Lemay gave an update on the development of the Tantramar Primary Care Clinic, which is one of three sites in the province where Horizon is building on its ‘medical home’ model. The province recently divulged that it has approved $766,000 in funding to go towards the Sackville clinic development.
“Since we’ve opened in September… we’ve had 1150 appointments,” said Lemay of the part-time clinic. “We’ve seen around 600 different people that came to our clinic up to now. We are operating right now with two nurses, one licensed practical nurse, two admins and two physicians, offering three days of services. [That] hasn’t changed since we opened the clinic.”
“We’ve expanded a bit in the building we’re in,” said Lemay. “We’re starting to grow a bit and use more space.”
Lemay also said that a new nurse practitioner would be starting with the clinic in June, and six new positions would be added this year, including a full time dietitian, a full time pharmacist, an admin staffperson, a patient navigator, a social worker and a part-time respiratory therapist.
Christa Wheeler-Thorne, Horizon Executive Director of Moncton Area
Christa Wheeler-Thorne is director of Moncton and Sackville hospitals and shared updates on the Sackville Memorial Hospital facility.
“There’s been a lot of construction and a lot of activity around there,” said Wheeler Thorne. “You’ll see a new parking lot… [The] latest phase of the roof is complete, and the next phase is currently underway. There is also a lot of activity on the Queen’s unit with respect to the Beal University site… We’re hoping we’ll be close to completion by later in this spring.”
“We had a discussion with some of the physicians and some of the staff to see if we could create some rotations to provide increased access to the emergency department,” said Wheeler-Thorne. “So we’re hoping that we’ll have some gaps filled with physicians that are interested in coming. We’ve had locum physicians come to the emergency department over the last few months. They like it. They’re interested in coming back. And so we’re hoping to get them secured into some rotations and expand our hours in the emergency department beyond 8am to 4pm, hopefully for the fall. But that remains to be seen.”
Kerry Kennedy, Horizon Regional Director of Talent Acquisition
“Our whole entire strategy is built around various candidates streams,” explained Kerry Kennedy. “So it’s local, national and international. And in fact, our team all don’t sit here New Brunswick. We’re throughout the nation now, which is exciting.”
Kennedy mentioned cash incentives for recruitment and also federal loan forgiveness programs that apply to recruitment into rural New Brunswick health care jobs, which includes the Tantramar region.
“For Sackville, for physician recruitment,” said Kennedy, “it’s important to understand there’s a pipeline, and many conversations that are happening. So some [new physician recruits] will get here sooner, and some we’ll be working with over time.”
“Overall, we have eight leads. We’ve hired seven. We have three locums, and we have four site visits,” reported Kennedy. “So this is important work that is happening for immediate recruitment and support in our physician area, and then future conversations that will continue.”
Martine Des Roches, Medavie Health Services, Vice President, Primary Care Network (NB Health Link)
“New Brunswick Health Link was launched in July of 2022, with a mandate to essentially become the temporary medical home for all the patients in New Brunswick that don’t have access to a primary care provider,” said Martine Des Roches on Thursday. In Zone 1, NB Health Link operates three clinics (in Moncton and DIeppe) with 19,000 patients registered and another 11,000 on a waitlist.
Des Roches explained that the service has replaced the former Patient Connect wait list. “NB Healthlink is the provincial registry,” said Des Roches. “However, the main difference is that while it is a registry, it also provides access to care while you wait to be permanently matched.”
“We want all patients in New Brunswick to eventually have a permanent home, where you can have that permanent relationship with a care provider.”
Public Question and Answer period
About 15 people got up to ask questions, make comments, and share their sometimes painful experiences with the health care system in Sackville and New Brunswick.
Questions ran the gamut from the frustrations of getting medical appointments for routine needs like drivers license physicals, to the concerns over a lack of public health investigation into neurological disorders in the region, to a plea for a timeline on when residents can expect to see a return to primary care access.
