Interim Liberal leader Roger Melanson. (Image: Zoom video capture)
The provincial Liberals say New Brunswick’s health care system is on life support and the Higgs government needs to resuscitate it now.
In a virtual news conference on Tuesday via Zoom, the official opposition says the shortage of health care professionals is worsening at an alarming rate.
Interim Liberal leader Roger Melanson says existing health care professionals need to be retained and more need to be recruited.
“What’s happening now is because conditions are so challenging and there’s such a lack of resources that people are burning out. And it’s putting even more pressure on the people who are working in the system.”
Melanson says the province needs to put more into the health care system.
“The provincial government needs to invest some money. We need to have competitive salaries. We need to have better working conditions. And we need to have these people go to work every day and enjoy what they do.”
Melanson says health care staff are burning out amid challenging working conditions and a lack of resources.
“In February 2020, the Higgs government tried to implement a plan to close emergency rooms overnight at several rural hospitals. Thanks to public outcry and the Liberal Party’s threats to bring down their minority government, they cancelled this decision,” added Melanson.
“Now after a year and a half of inaction by the Higgs government, we are seeing hospitals at maximum capacity, with some forced to reduce their emergency room hours, and ambulance offload delay times increasing rapidly. This is beyond unacceptable.”
The Department of Health issued a statement in response on Tuesday afternoon through communications director Bruce Macfarlane.
“New Brunswick’s health care system has been facing significant challenges for many years. The Department of Health is working to address those challenges, with help from the regional health authorities, industry stakeholders, and communities across the province.
In recent months, the Department of Health has organized a series of public consultations, which offered New Brunswickers the opportunity to share their ideas and vision for a more responsive and effective health-care system.
Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department has been successful at addressing some of those health care challenges. It has cut the number of patients waiting longer than a year for hip or knee replacement surgery by 50 per cent, with continued efforts underway to ensure no one will wait longer than a year by the end of March 2022.
Meaningful change is also coming to how the province delivers mental health services. As part of its five-year plan to overhaul the existing system, work is being done to improve the quality and accessibility of services.
Last fall, the province launched rapid access addiction and mental health services, offering walk-in and rapid appointment services, on a trial basis in Campbellton. More than 300 individuals have already benefited from these services, cutting the average wait time for care from four to five months down to a week or less. There are plans to expand this programming to other communities this fall.
In addition, since June, the department has launched three new nurse practitioner clinics in Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton. The 18 nurse practitioners working in these clinics have already taken on more than 5,000 patients waiting for a primary care provider from the Patient Connect New Brunswick list.
Efforts continue to recruit more nurses and physicians, though the department understands that jurisdictions everywhere are struggling with staffing shortages. Last week, tentative agreements were reached with two of the three nurses’ collective bargaining units, and contract talks are still underway with other health care units.”
