'A worsening situation': Primary health-care declines in New Brunswick says report

The New Brunswick provincial legislative building is seen in Fredericton, N.B. on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Sousa)

The New Brunswick Health Council, which is responsible for reporting publicly on the performance of the provincial health system, released a report Monday on the state of access to primary health care.

According to the council, primary care is on the decline, despite New Brunswick having more doctors per-capita than most provinces.

"I am happy to see that the New Brunswick Health Council is looking at primary care access, and also that primary care access to quality care is important,” said Dr. Michele Michaud, president of the New Brunswick Medical Society.

The province has a waiting list of 75,000 patients seeking primary health-care providers.

"In New Brunswick, we have among the highest numbers of doctors per-capita among the highest numbers of people who have a family doctor,” Robichaud said.

“Yet again [it's] a worsening situation when it comes to the ability for people to access their doctor in a timely way,” he said.

The report shows that in 2020, 50.8 per cent of citizens were able to get an appointment with their family doctor within five days, down from 55.6 per cent in 2011.

"It's not surprising, but I think we need to understand that even though we have one of the larger ratios of family docs to patients, the province of New Brunswick has a lot of physicians working elsewhere than in the office taking roster patients,” Michaud said.

“For instance, a lot of physicians are doing ER work which is especially true in rural regions where we don't have any specialized emergency doctors,” she said.

New Brunswickers are reported to be utilizing alternative care such as calling 811 tele-health and visiting walk-in clinics versus the emergency department.

"In a nutshell, the consensus is that we should be doing far better with the level of resources we have. So we should be moving away from family doctor-focused primary care,” said Stéphane Robichaud, CEO of the New Brunswick Health Council.

Instead, he says family doctors should be one part of a health-care team that would serve patients.

New Brunswick’s health minister could not be reached for comment Monday.

The Health Department sent a statement saying in part: “We know there’s more work to do on this front, and we’ll continue to encourage physicians and nurse practitioners to consider new and innovative ways to care for their patients in the days ahead.”