The leaders of a community task force on rural health care say they’re optimistic services at the Sackville Memorial Hospital will be restored.
The Mount Allison Faculty Association is also throwing its support behind the movement to restore hospital services.
Former Sackville mayor John Higham is one of the co-chairs of the Memramcook-Tantramar Rural Health Action Group.
In a statement, Higham said the group felt encouraged by year-end meetings with Horizon Health Network.
Officials from the regional health authority “have given us hope that the cutbacks against which we protested last year will indeed be temporary,” Higham said in the statement.
The emergency department at Sackville Memorial Hospital is currently open between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. seven days a week following service reductions.
But Horizon officials say they’re committed to restoring 24/7 emergency care, according to the statement from the Rural Health Action Group.
Officials from the health authority have also indicated they intend to return to a full complement of acute-care beds, along with “further investments in additional services,” according to the statement.
It said the health authority has also agreed to work with the local action group on marketing efforts meant to retain and recruit doctors, nurses and other staff in the region.
In December, Horizon announced the acute care unit at Sackville Memorial would close, and those beds would be used for people awaiting long-term care.
Former mayor Pat Estabrooks, also a co-chair of the action group, acknowledged the COVID-19 pandemic has placed additional pressure on health care resources.
However, she said the needs of Sackville “remain urgent, and we will continue to push Horizon and the Department of Health to act as quickly as possible.”
CHMA previously reported that Horizon has hired a former nurse and hospital administrator to work on retention and recruitment of nurses at the hospital
Also this week, the union representing faculty and librarians at Mount Allison University issued a statement calling on the provincial government to “preserve and enhance the role of the Sackville Memorial Hospital.”
The Mount Allison Faculty Association cited high-quality local health-care as an essential factor in attracting and retaining university employees, such as faculty and librarians – including after they retire.
According to the union, service cuts at the hospital have often been based on what it called the “flawed belief that moving medical services to Moncton and other centres is the only way to offer these services.”
The union noted that not everyone can travel to Amherst or Moncton for health-care services, and patients often face long wait times at those locations.
Those trips can also be hazardous in their own right during the winter months, the statement added.
