N.B. premier defends budget surplus against health care crisis

New Brunswick’s premier says several photos showing an elderly patient’s placement in a hospital supply room are “heartbreaking,” but Blaine Higgs argues his government’s massive budget surplus wouldn’t necessarily address the issue.

Karen Totten was shocked when she discovered her mother, Irene MacNeill, had been re-located to a supply room inside an overcrowded Saint John Regional Hospital on Thursday.

MacNeil has been in the hospital since September and is waiting for a long-term care bed to become available.

The photos, posted on social media by Totten, have been shared across the country.

“We’ve had some unfortunate situations and we know that,” says Higgs. “I really feel for certainly the patient, the mother and the daughter. But I also have to say that I know that health-care professionals are doing their very best to try to put people and keep people in the places where they’re needed most.”

Totten says she doesn’t blame the nurses or doctors for her mother’s relocation. Instead, Totten puts the onus on Higgs and says he should be directing more of the province’s growing surplus to health care.

“We have a lot of money in New Brunswick,” says Totten. “A surplus, right? How come? Because they’re not using it where it should be.”

Higgs says spending more money on health care might not be effective.

“I’ve said over and over again that we’ll put money into anything that’s going to get better results for patients,” says Higgs. “But what we always have found, or not always have found, but many times we’ve found we put more money into it but we don’t see any results.”

Cecile Cassista, executive director of the New Brunswick Coalition for Seniors and Nursing Home Residents' Rights, disagrees with Higgs.

“Money does solve part of the problem and he knows what the problem is,” says Cassista, mentioning staff shortages and bed closures. “I call upon him to share that surplus. We’ve got a crisis and he needs to recognize that.”

In a written statement, Horizon says patients are commonly moved to “non-traditional care spaces’ when there’s overcrowding in a facility.

The health authority wouldn’t comment on any specific case. Interim Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson wasn’t made available for an interview Monday.

Cassista applauded Karen Totten for sharing the photos publically.

“Families are afraid to speak out, and I get that,” says Cassista.