The leader of the Liberal Party says he’s not happy with the decision to shut down the hospitals overnight.
Kevin Vickers says the move is “totally unacceptable.”
Emergency rooms in Sussex, Sackville, Saint-Anne-de-Kent, Caraquet, Perth-Andover and Grand Falls will be closed between midnight and 8 a-m.
“First rule of thumb is do no harm, and this has potential to do great harm,” said Vickers in an interview.
“These changes are drastic changes, they’re putting New Brunswickers’ lives in danger, and there is no mandate for it.”
Horizon officials say the hospitals see an average of five patients nightly and most are not emergencies.
But Vickers says that’s still a lot of patients.
“I really found it disingenuous of the government to give the number of there’s only five people a night, but if you do the quick math, that’s 11,000 New Brunswickers in a year that attend these rural hospitals for emergency medical assistance,” he said.
Vickers says he’s ready to take action against the Higgs government as soon as possible.
“We are so outraged by this announcement that we, the Liberal Party are committed to bringing down the Higgs government at the first opportunity, the first confidence vote,” he said.
He says the Liberals will also not support any piece of legislation involved in cutting services at hospitals.
The Legislature sits again on March 10th, where Vickers will explore a potential non-confidence motion.
Vickers says Premier Higgs ran on a promise that his government would not close hospitals, and maintain levels of service.
“This flies in the face of that,” he said.
Vickers says he was only made aware of the changes via a phone call Monday morning.
“This is a minority government, and minority governments are supposed to work together by being collaborative and working with one another for the good of the province,” he said.
Vickers says reversing the overnight closures would be the first thing he would do if elected into office.
“Should we get back into power, should I become Premier, if the services are cut, we will reinstate them immediately,” he said.
“It’s not that the Liberal Party is against change or reforms to healthcare, but we just as a party cannot tolerate the idea of our weakest and most vulnerable having a decrease in emergency services, especially in rural areas.”
