'A crisis in terms of human resources:' Dr. Jennifer Russell on health-care system strain

FREDERICTON -

Doctors in New Brunswick say they don’t know what to expect next, as 571 medical professionals isolate due to COVID-19.

"I can't tell you what tomorrow is going to look like, I can't tell you what next week is going to look like, I can tell you that it's going to be a rough couple of weeks going forward and we need people to be patient with us because I don't have a crystal ball or an exact solution,” said Dr. Mark MacMillan, president of the N.B. Medical Society.

One general practitioner in the province is calling for a lockdown.

"I really do think we should have a lockdown at this point similar to what Ontario’s done, where we close all non essential businesses at least for a circuit breaker period of time just to allow some mitigation of this virus,” said Dr. Roxanne MacKnight.

New Brunswick's Chief Medical Officer of Health says they only expect cases to increase as Omicron spreads.

"It's predictable at this point that as cases rise the hospitalizations will rise and so we're tracking hospitalizations right now,” said Dr. Jennifer Russell.

“Clearly when you hear the number of people that have been isolating and have been impacted by COVID-19 in the hospital system particularly in the Saint John region we're undertaking with our RHAs and the work they've been doing very diligently over the past several days to manage this is becoming a crisis in terms of human resources,” Dr. Russell said.

Of those isolating, 460 are from the Horizon Health Network, 70 are from the Vitalité Health Network staff and 41 are from Extra-Mural/Ambulance New Brunswick.

“We're really trying to be as nimble and flexible as possible to try to address the issues in the hospital system with respect to the services that they need to continue to be able to offer,” added Dr. Russell.   

Dr. MacMillan says many physicians and healthcare professionals were just starting to catch up on their long wait lists but he expects that to change again soon.

"We are now suffering the consequences, we are reducing surgeries, we are reducing procedures, we are cancelling appointments, we are cancelling bloodwork appointments, radiology appointments, all these sort of very important procedures and imaging tests, and tests which they call elective but it doesn't mean they're not important,” said Dr. MacMillan.

Both Dr. MacMillan and Dr. MacKnight say the only way to end this crisis is to get vaccinated and boosted.

"It's frustrating for us because we're feeling because we feel like we want to do what we can to help our patients and we're constantly trying to explain the situation," added Dr. MacKnight.