After over seven months, estimated N.B. hospital ER wait times still not back online

New Brunswick’s department of health has been making improvements on its “My Health NB” app over the last several months.

The app was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic; a portal for New Brunswickers to show their vaccine records.

Now it hosts radiology and blood work results, and includes wait times for many health services including MRI’s, CT’s and other scans and ultrasounds.

What it doesn’t include are wait time estimates for emergency departments.

Those disappeared from health authority websites over seven months ago. According to Horizon Health Network, ER wait time estimates are supposed to migrate to My Health NB – but haven’t appeared yet.

CTV Atlantic asked the Department of Health when New Brunswickers would be able to access estimated ER wait times again – and what’s been the delay – but a spokesperson said they couldn’t give an answer on Wednesday.

“This is something other provinces have figured out. This is something that the New Brunswick government had committed to doing and had started to do. So I'm not sure what's failed that they can't provide that information anymore,” said Liberal leader Susan Holt.

But New Brunswick Medical Society president Dr. Paula Keating questions if – right now – “up to date dashboards are needed” since most know that emergency rooms are overcrowded province-wide.

“Physicians believe that transparency with respect to health system performance is important to track system improvements over time,” she said. “However, we do not believe up to date dashboards are needed to realize that our emergency rooms remain consistently overcrowded with non-urgent cases due to a lack of support for and investment in our family physicians and their primary care clinics. We hope that is where the efforts of Horizon Health and government remain focused.”

In July, a Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital emergency department physician posted on social media that “wait times are extremely long for non life - or limb – threatening conditions, and even for some more serious illnesses.”

Dr. Yogi Sehgal also said the department “looks a bit like a war zone with people in hallways and chairs all over the place.”

With the provincial election two months away, Holt says health care is the top concern she’s hearing about as she goes door to door – from citizens and healthcare workers alike.

“Just yesterday on this street, I was talking with a nurse who was working a shift that was 50 per cent staffed. And so she's afraid about her ability to deliver safe care when she barely has time to check that she's putting the right blood product on somebody’s IV pole,” she said.

Dr. Keating also said regardless of wait times, anyone experiencing a medical emergency shouldn’t hesitate to visit an ER.

“Our health professionals are trained to triage health issues and are there to ensure that you are evaluated and seen as soon as possible,” she said.

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