Public consultation sessions to help the province improve the current healthcare system saw a shift in priorities with a virtual meeting on Tuesday.
The virtual healthcare tour covered the Greater Moncton region, New Brunswick’s largest urban centre, as the main areas of concern were quite different from those heard in previous sessions.
Over the last month, when these sessions occurred, the most common issues involved a lack of family doctors and trouble finding transportation to health services.
These reoccurring issues did not appear for residents of the Moncton area as one by one facilitator returned from breakout groups and expressed the differences compared to previous consultations.
“A discussion very different from other groups I’ve participated in,“ said facilitator Natasha Dube.
Many of these groups included members of the healthcare system with several nurses who have noticed a trend.
“Many people come and see her for mental issues because the waiting lists are too long,” said Facilitator Natalie Poirier about a nurse in her breakout group.
Michael McNaughton noted that a nurse in his group had similar experiences, “People that are on the phone or in-person are coming to her because they don’t have anyone else to talk to.”
These nurses also expressed unease about the status of the industry’s job market and how younger generations are responding.
“There are people who finish their studies and would like to work in their field in their city, but the salary is not competitive, so they move elsewhere, said Poirier.
Discussions also brought to light how certain services in the Greater Moncton region have been misused, including patients going to the emergency room for less serious issues.
As a result, people who may be in dire need of some of these services have been put in dangerous situations.
“People who actually had to wait in an ambulance for hours before being admitted into a hospital,” said facilitator Janet Norman.
According to Health Minister Dorothy Shephard, it has been a common occurrence for the province’s health advice and information line to repeat similar instructions to all callers regardless of the situation.
“I have heard a lot of comments about 8-1-1 and people consistently being told to go to the ER,” she said.
Scenarios of individuals ending up in the wrong place were also a cause for concern in Dr.Greg Patterson’s group.
“Those in the province with chronic illness need to have better connectivity with professional services…the emergency room is not the place for people with Chronic Illnesses,” he said.
The Health Minister indicated that changes have to be made to help the community understand where to go given their current situation.
“We need an education strategy to convince individuals that they can go elsewhere,” said Shephard.
In a virtual scrum with reporters after the consultation, Shephard discussed the complexity of addressing issues in rural and urban areas with the same healthcare plan, a task she called daunting.
“We have to deliver dependable, affordable healthcare for the people of New Brunswick that’s the job. I’ve been given it, and I’m not going to shirk away from it,” said Shephard.
This concern also made its way into the discussions of Natasha Dube’s group, “Sometimes we’re trying to find a one size fits all solution for every region.”
In terms of how the healthcare plan effectively will cover all New Brunswickers, Shephard made the point that it is the same number of kilometres from Moncton to Sackville as it is from Sackville to Moncton and that services can be spread out.
“There are some big-ticket items that we would be better off having in a centre; However, the rural hospitals also give us an opportunity,” she said.
There are still seven more public consultations set to take place, including those for the province’s other urban centres, Saint John and Fredericton.
