N.B. should be on 'alert' as new N.S. Premier promises more health care spending: union

FREDERICTON -

Improved salaries, physician pension fund, and more residency seats are all promises made by Nova Scotia's newly-elected Premier Tim Houston with the aim of attracting more health-care workers to tackle the province's ailing health-care system

That is causing some concern in neighbouring New Brunswick, where the situation is also ailing.

“If we don’t have a similar focus here in New Brunswick, then yes, this could definitely threaten health care in New Brunswick,” said Dr. Jeff Steeves, president of the N.B. Medical Society. “Our number one competitor for physicians is Nova Scotia. That’s where most of our physicians move to.”

Paula Doucet, president of the N.B. Nurses Union, says nurses also leave the province for N.S.

“There are registered nurses that have left positions especially in border towns with Nova Scotia, to go and work there,” she said. “I also know of a nurse practitioner who has left New Brunswick to go to Prince Edward Island.”

Doucet agrees Houston’s promise of more health care spending should be “a message resonating with our government here in New Brunswick.”

“I think with the newly-elected premier in Nova Scotia and him making health care his number one priority, should put us on alert in New Brunswick,” she said.

The numbers show a dire situation in the neighbouring Maritime provinces.

In Nova Scotia:

• short several hundred – if not 1,000 – nurses
• 125 vacant family doctor and specialist positions
• 71,666 people waiting for a primary-care provider, as of July 31

In New Brunswick:

• 1,000 vacant nurse positions
• 100 vacant family doctor and specialist positions at Vitalite Health Network
• 45.5 vacant family doctor and specialist positions at Horizon Health Network (as of June 25)
• 37,054 people waiting for a primary-care provider, as of August 19

Both Doctors N.S. and the N.B. Medical Society say their respective provinces need about 100 doctors a year, over several years, to catch up with the shortage.

N.B. Premier Blaine Higgs said Wednesday he wants to work with Houston on an Atlantic approach, even willing to open up N.B.’s books and see if the provinces can find a solution together.

“I don’t want to get caught up in this competitive situation where all we’re doing is we’re wearing each other down rather than fixing the system,” said Higgs.

Doctors in N.B. have been without a contract since March 2020, while N.B. nurses have been without since December 2018.