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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.