'We’re hitting the ground running': New N.B. health minister promises updates on health plan

Bruce Fitch says, in his 19 years of being an MLA, he’s learned not to be “surprised about surprises.”

Fitch was asked Friday morning to take over as New Brunswick's new health minister -- a challenging portfolio in normal times, which these days are anything but.

“We're hitting the ground running here. I'm not giving you weeks or months to get up to speed. Things need to happen now,” he said Tuesday afternoon.

On Friday, Premier Blaine Higgs announced he was removing Health Minister Dorothy Shephard and Horizon Health CEO Dr. John Dornan from their roles.

He also revoked the elected boards of both Horizon and Vitalite Health Networks, replacing them with appointed trustees.

Fitch said they haven’t decided on a timeline for when a permanent Horizon Health CEO will be named — or when the board will be re-established.

He said he took the weekend to review the current health plan and its deadlines and is hoping to have more information for New Brunswickers on things like the Primary Care Network, soon.

In the meantime, reaction from the leadership shakeup continues.

Now-former Horizon board chair Jeff McAloon said he remains “frustrated that the premier has disbanded a board full of skilled and experienced leaders,” but says he’s most concerned about the removal of Dr. Dornan.

“…My biggest disappointment is that he has used Dr. Dornan as a political scapegoat. John was the real deal. He was listening to his people. He was beginning to effect real and lasting change, but he only had a little over 100 days on the job,” said McAloon.

“I hope someone starts the clock and reports back on how much progress the premier makes in the next 100 days.”

Those in the medical community say patients — not politics —  need to be the focus.

“What matters most is what's going to happen for patients. So these next number of days, where there's centralized leadership, centralized decision-making, we would expect some positive movements forward, whatever they may be,” said New Brunswick Medical Society CEO Anthony Knight.

Knight says there’s a sense of “dismay and disappointment” among doctors about the removal of Dr. Dornan. But, now that it’s happened, the focus should be on improving health care for all New Brunswickers.

“What's so important is access to primary care. That's your gateway to your health system, so making sure folks have access to a family physician or a nurse practitioner,” Knight said. “Addressing our wait times in our emergency departments is critical...and then finally we need to think bigger and beyond just today and tomorrow and start planning better human health resources.”

The changes were sparked after the death of a patient who was waiting in the Dr. Everett Chalmers Emergency Department last Tuesday.

Fitch wouldn’t say if he’s learned any more details on what happened that evening, citing confidentiality.