N.B. health-care workers share their recommendations for ailing system

New Brunswick doctors, nurses, psychologists, nurse practitioners and other health-care professionals have come together to create a plan to help the province’s ailing care system.

For some time, the system has been plagued by staffing shortages, long waitlists and wait times for those trying to access health care.

N.B. Nurses Union president Paula Doucet says the Blaine Higgs government hasn’t conducted “meaningful conversations” with those on the frontlines to see what they would recommend.

So, she says, they brought a report citing 23 recommendations to them.

“You haven't had meaningful conversations with any of us. You've just gone offf and made recommendations and investments where you think it's a good place to do it right,” she said.

The union, along with the N.B. Medical Society and other professional organizations, held a news conference Tuesday to share those findings with the public.

Some of those recommendations include:

• Create 50 primary care clinics over the next two years
• Invest in benefits and incentives for health-care workers currently in the system, and tuition or tax relief for students who want to work in the system
• Add ‘patient discharge teams’ to help alternate level of care patients – often seniors – find long-term care outside of hospitals
• Commit to the digitization of the entire health-care system

Along with several other recommendations, for a total cost of $597.5 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

That’s a start, but N.B. Medical Society executive director warns, it will take several years of increased funding – about five per cent more each year– to reach the level of investment needed to get the system back on track.

“Anyone who's walked in a hospital in the last year knows that we're not spending it. And if you look at the walls, you look at the quality, you look at the state of the place, and we know that that's not the public system that people deserve and should have. And that is absolutely related to funding,” said René Boudreau. “What we're saying today is that if we're going to plan to fail, then let's be honest about it, but if we're going to plan to succeed, we need these types of investments going forward.”

They’re also calling for the removal of health minister Bruce Fitch as the chair of the health system collaboration council. That council was created in 2023 as part of a new health authority board, comprised of the two health authorities, government and health representatives. It makes decisions on the system’s needs.

Doucet says what the system really needs is a comprehensive plan for retaining the people on the ground – and incentives to recruit more.

“We need to do something to ensure that we have those folks staying in our system. But what are we doing to attract them to come to New Brunswick? You know, when a psychologist can make a decision to go to Nova Scotia and make 30 per cent more than what they're making here in New Brunswick, that’s not a hard decision to make,” she said.

Dr. Paula Keating, president of the N.B. Medical Society, says about 40 per cent of N.B. doctors are thinking of reducing their practices because of burnout, and the administrative burden.

She says she would like to see collaborative care practices – or primary care clinics – become the norm.

“Having a support team with you, by having some of the administrative burden relieved by and shared amongst other care providers, I'm certain that that number would diminish fairly quickly,” she said, referring to the 40 per cent.

And the group says it can happen within their two year timeframe, by using existing infrastructure, and adding nurses, nurse practitioners and medical support staff.

“No physician wants to be on vacation looking at their critical lab values because they don't have staff back at the office to take a look at them…What we're asking government in this is to recognize that need for a team,” said Boudreau. “We're not looking to construct a community health center. What we're saying is there are teams right now that have rents in place and they're serving citizens today. But it could increase the number of patients they see if they had a nurse on board or if they have an assistant. So all of these changes can be made with the infrastructure today.”

In a statement, the department of health said it’s reviewing the report and recommendations, and “appreciates the input.”

The department did say it’s had several discussions with the N.B. Medical Society about their ideas, and met with them on Feb. 15.

“In fact, we have suggested a number of initiatives for their consideration. As well, a letter about these ideas was recently sent to the society to follow up,” a spokesperson said in the emailed statement. 

The provincial budget will be tabled March 19.

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