The province of New Brunswick is putting $7.8 million towards three new sites for collaborative care clinics in the province, and Sackville is one. The province says Horizon has allocated $766,000 of the funding to operating the Tantramar primary care clinic which it opened in September 2023.
During a legislative committee hearing last week, Health Minister Bruce Fitch shared the funding news under questioning by Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton. Fitch said Horizon had allocated $1,122,500 to a Sussex clinic, and $4,013,000 to one in Fredericton North. He also said there was about $2 million in the budget for capital improvements for the three clinics. It’s not clear how much of that, if any, would be spent in the Tantramar clinic, which is leasing space in the Tantramar Health Centre, a privately owned building across the parking lot from the Sackville Hospital.
Mitton told CHMA she had advocated for the funding of the Tantramar clinic in the lead up to the budget’s release, and is “hopeful that this will move things along a lot faster.” The current clinic operates just a few days per week with two part-time doctors on staff, one of whom is near retirement.
“People are really struggling and suffering because of their lack of access to health care in our community,” said Mitton.
CHMA reached out to Horizon this week for details on how the $766,000 will be spent, but the health authority wasn’t willing to share any further information. In committee, Fitch told Mitton that the funding for the clinics would cover “program and physician costs.”
Mitton says she is hoping for more clarity at a public meeting on April 25 in Sackville which will feature managers from Horizon as well as representatives from Medavie Health Services, who run NB Health Link clinics. “I’m hoping we can get a lot more detailed information directly to the community,” says Mitton, “because we deserve to know exactly what to expect.”
Mitton has held a number of public meetings on health care, all featuring management from Horizon Health Network. At the last meeting in October, a number of questions from the public had to do with NB Health Link, a series of 11 temporary primary care clinics run by Medavie Health Services, who also run Ambulance NB. At the time, Mitton committed to inviting Medavie to the next public session, which is now scheduled for April 25, 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the Tantramar Civic Centre, arena floor.
Public system ‘not on equal footing’
Mitton has been critical of the Higgs government’s use of Medavie to run Health Link clinics in part because they compete with the health networks and existing walk-in clinics for healthcare staff. “It’s a growing problem,” said Mitton. “And we’re seeing that show up with things like Health Link, things like eVisit, things like the private travel nurse agencies, where they’re paying more, but it’s more of like a gig economy. And the public system is not on equal footing there.”
“It’s undermining the public system, and it’s also even undermining what collaborative care clinics might look like,” said Mitton. “Why couldn’t Horizon be setting up something like Health Link? Well, they are trying, but it wasn’t necessary for this to be done outside of the public sphere.”
In legislative committee, Fitch didn’t address why Health Link was being run by Medavie, but he defended the program in general, saying it has helped some people meet their health care needs.
“From what it was before, to what it is today, it is better,” said Fitch. “Realizing it is temporary service, realizing it as a service that isn’t completely up to the end goal. But you can go and get attached to a clinic, and you can get your blood work done. You can get the follow up on your medication that needs to be renewed on a regular basis after a test is done. And that’s something thing that two years ago didn’t happen unless you had a primary care provider, or you ended up in the emergency room.”
Primary care plan still unreleased
During committee hearings Mitton again asked Fitch to share a copy of the department’s 18-month primary health care plan that it first mentioned back in February in its annual report. Fitch brushed off the MLA’s curiosity, saying that despite the plan not being released publicly, there’s nothing to hide.
“It’s not going to be this a-ha! moment to say, oh my goodness, what have they been hiding here?” said Fitch. “We’ve been very transparent on the components that make up that plan.” Fitch said the plan document was currently in translation and the department would release it “in the not so distant future”.
“I haven’t seen it yet. I don’t know that we’ll see it,” said Mitton. “And it’s very unacceptable.” Mitton asked the minister to read the report into the record during committee, where simultaneous translation is available, but the minister told her he did not have a copy.
“I don’t see why they won’t tell us exactly what’s in it, especially if it’s already out there,” said Mitton. “Just give us the list of what is included there, what your 18-month plan looks like. Them not releasing it makes it so that it’s very hard to hold them accountable for their plan.”
