'The emergency room ends up being their backup’: N.B. doctors make health-care recommendations

FREDERICTON -

A new report on ways to improve New Brunswick's troubled health-care system highlights key issues like recruitment, virtual care and aging infrastructure in submissions from over 500 doctors across the province.

The New Brunswick Medical Society released its report Wednesday, calling for the provincial government to consider its submissions.

Recruitment and retention are critical, says society president Dr. Jeff Steeves, but, also "accessible, equitable, effective, timely health care."

"When patients don’t have care, the emergency room ends up being their backup care," he said.

"We need to try to make sure that patients have access to primary care - for example, teams of care."

If their doctor’s away, they’re not just left out. There would be a community of practice where they could see someone, virtually perhaps…try to make the patient’s first stop their primary care provider team and not the emergency room," says Steeves.

According to the department of health, 37,054 people are waiting for a family doctor or primary care provider on the patient connect list.

But the Medical Society says there could be as many as 70,000 "unattached patients."

Dr. Michèle Michaud, a family physician who serves the Edmundston region, says recruitment is really difficult because they’re competing with Maine and Quebec.

"So, one of the issues we have is having resources in both languages available all the time and serving as best as possible the rural regions and the urban regions," she said.

"So when you’re away from the centres, like in Edmundston, who borders Quebec and Maine, we have difficulty recruiting."

"It’s a really, really, really big issue and it needs to be worked on with our government," she said.

The 57 recommendations also include addressing New Brunswicker's wellbeing. The report cites the province as having the lowest median income in the country, stating that "poverty is a substantial cost driver in the system."

It also calls on the province to address health-care spending.

"Overall health spending in New Brunswick is low," the report reads. "New Brunswick has the lowest per capita health expenditures in the Atlantic provinces."

Doctors are recommending a six per cent increase in spending, each year, over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the medical society says they haven’t had any "direct communication" with the province or department of health on the report yet.

The Department of Health acknowledged the report, but said many of the concerns being raised, are not new, but will be considered as they move forward on healthcare reform.

“The recommendations from the Medical Society, along with the many submissions from other healthcare providers and citizens, are being reviewed in order to build a five-year provincial health plan,” said department spokesperson Gail Harding.