N.B. health board bill from 'the playbook for private health-care,' says nurses union

The New Brunswick Nurses Union says the provincial government’s push to pick who sits on previously-elected health authority boards will pave the way for more private health-care.

The Progressive Conservatives introduced legislation this week to appoint two new boards of directors at the Horizon Health Network and Vitalité Health Network.

Both health boards previously had 15 voting members (seven appointed and eight elected) before being revoked by Premier Blaine Higgs last July.

The new boards would each have seven appointed members.

“This is a page taken out of the playbook for private health care,” said Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, in an interview on Thursday.

While defending the health board legislation on Thursday, the Progressive Conservatives also re-touted a second provincial pilot program providing publicly funded cataract surgeries in private clinics. According to the Department of Health, the most recent program in the Miramichi area will increase the number of surgical procedures each week from 25 to 75.

Doucet dismissed the PC government’s promise of reduced wait times for patients.

“If anybody thinks this government is trying to make things better, in the interim it may seem that way. However, down the road it is just going to erode the publically funded, publically delivered system of health care, and it’s just opening the doors to private-for-profit,” said Doucet.

“FORMER DOCTORS, PRESENT DOCTORS, PEOPLE INVOLVED IN GOVERNANCE"

On Thursday, the Liberals referred to comments Fitch made 15 years while in opposition, in support of elected and appointed health boards.

New Brunswick’s eight former regional health authorities became two in 2008, controversially under the Shawn Graham Liberal government.

“(Fitch) said in 2008, when there was a major shakeup in the boards, that it was an attack on democracy,” said Liberal health critic Rob McKee.

Fitch later told reporters on Thursday his comments in 2008 were not “applicable to this situation.”

In the legislature, Fitch said the process of making health board appointments had not yet begun.

“I’ve had people contacting me who are former doctors, present doctors, people involved in governance,” said Fitch. “What we’ve done is engaged in a search for a head-hunting firm to go out and create a matrix of the skill sets that are needed to make sure we are addressing all parts that are needed for governance with the RHA system.”

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