Health minister says New Brunswick's patient wait-list to be eliminated by year’s end

After being on the hunt for a new tenant for quite some time, a community pharmacy in Keswick, N.B., is now renting out space in its health clinic to a nurse practitioner.

It's a welcome addition after the clinic’s original physician left for another province.

It’s a step forward for a community that has about 700 so-called orphan patients – people without a primary care provider.

“It’s a big gap,” said Shelonie Cooley, the pharmacist and co-owner of the clinic. “I mean, as a community pharmacist working in there every day, I see the patients coming in who don't have family physicians and they are thrilled to know that we have Leah here now.”

The nurse practitioner will fill part of the space, but they’re still hoping to recruit a family physician to complete the clinic.

It is a relief to the patient wait list-that, in recent months, has grown to over 50,000 people.

“That's why we're in such a need to make sure we get this system up and running,” said New Brunswick Health Minister Dorothy Shephard.

The system she is referring to is the Primary Care Network -- a provincial program that will match orphan patients to a timely appointment with a physician or nurse practitioner while they wait for a longer-term placement.

The aim is to eliminate the need for the current wait-list system.

The target was for it to be in place by the end of quarter two – or September -- but Shephard says it’s now looking like the end of the year.

“I know that it's taken a little bit longer but we know that our COVID reality has certainly given staff challenges and they've had to prioritize their targets in the moment,” she said.

But they are making improvements. With the addition of the Keswick nurse practitioner clinic, almost 30 nurse practitioners have been now hired in zone three alone, which includes the Fredericton and Upper River Valley area.

Those providers are filling gaps in an area that has lost some family doctors in recent months.

“We have some work to do on family practice physician recruitment, there’s no question,” said David Arbeau, a primary care director for Horizon Health Network. “But there's lots of work happening and collaboration with municipalities and lots of conversations happening around how do we work together on that.”

Shephard says they are aiming to open more clinics, including in rural areas where some are not accessing primary care in a timely way.