Just 11 per cent of NBers satisfied with province’s handling of health care: Angus Reid survey

Dr. Paula Keating says with population increases and more family doctors retiring or reducing their hours, the number of New Brunswickers without a primary care provider could double by the end of 2024.

“I think the most recent data on the New Brunswick Health Link showed 50,000 patients and we're on track by the end of 2024, unless something changes urgently, to have over 100,000 patients potentially without a primary care provider,” she said.

The president of the New Brunswick Medical Society said they found in a recent wellness survey that 40 per cent of family physicians are considering reducing their hours of work, retiring or seeking other alternatives because of the lack of compensation or support in their primary care offices.

Dr. Keating says she’s not surprised by numbers released by the Angus Reid Institute showing just 11 per cent of New Brunswickers are satisfied with the province’s handling of health care.

The survey tracked Canadians’ satisfaction at the start of the pandemic until 2023 and found a decrease of satisfaction across the country.

But New Brunswick’s dip is the lowest, going from 42 per cent to 11 per cent.

Nova Scotia saw a slight dip, from 28 per cent to 26 per cent.

“At some point we've got to turn this around, because having only 10 per cent of the population satisfied with the government on a number of issues is a pretty big problem given that we elect our governments to serve us and to solve our problems,” said Angus Reid research director Dave Korzinski. “The numbers are as low as they've ever been on some of those issues, health care being kind of the prominent one.”

That dissatisfaction is something Dr. Michael Howlett is hearing on the ground.

“I see lots of people every day that either are frustrated with long waits or really concerned for family members on the stretchers that are trying to get admitted, and they're sitting in a hallway,” he said.

The president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians – who also spent time working in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick hospitals – says health-care professionals are still determined to make things better, but they sometimes feel left out of the conversation.

“We met with ministers of health in October to try to convince them that we were willing and able to provide expertise. We have lots and lots of people, lots of physicians in health care and in emergency medicine who have plenty of administrative and systems expertise, not just clinical expertise, and see things for what it is and are capable to provide input and support,” he said. “Why governments don't seem to want to take that kind of advice is a little beyond me. But that's where we find ourselves. We haven't heard back from them since.”

N.B government says change and improvements are happening

In a lengthy statement responding to the Angus Reid survey results, New Brunswick’s department of health pointed to a number of changes that have happened in the last five years.

Those include a net increase of 127 doctors and 1,187 nurses since 2018, and a doubling of the amount of students in nursing school. A spokesperson also said 14 medical school seats have been moved from outside the province to medical schools in Moncton and Saint John.

There’s also been a decrease in the wait time for hip and knee surgeries, with the department stating: “At the current rate, no one will wait longer than 12 months for hip or knee replacement surgery by the midway point of this year.”

The province also points to one-at-a-time therapy for community addiction and mental health centres, the addition of oncology nurse navigators, and emergency medical technicians to the ambulance system.

“The launch of the MyHealthNB portal has provided more than 230,000 New Brunswickers with the opportunity to securely see lab results, medications, immunization records, and imaging reports,” the statement reads. “We are working tirelessly to address complex and serious problems across the health-care system that cannot be fixed immediately.”

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