Liberals promise 30 collaborative health-care clinics before 2028
In first major commitment ahead of election, leader Susan Holt says clinics would improve primary-care access
Liberal Leader Susan Holt is promising to open "at least" 30 collaborative health-care clinics in her first three years of power in order to cut wait times for primary care.
Holt said the commitment — the party's first major promise ahead of the fall election campaign — would cost $115.2 million over four years.
"Your health care is our number one priority," she said. "We will cut your wait time for care."
Holt said if she's elected, the first four clinics, in Fredericton, St. Stephen, Sussex and Campbellton, would open in 2025, and the rest would be operating before 2028.
The first four locations are in areas that were promised "integrated community care" facilities in the Higgs government's 2022 throne speech. The other sites were based on data from the arm's-length New Brunswick Health Council, she said.
The centres would bring together doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists and others "to provide a health-care home for patients," the Liberals said.
Holt said that some of the 30 new clinics would be managed by the regional health authorities, some would be set up by groups of clinicians and still others might be through partnerships with municipalities.
Holt was joined by 16 Liberal candidates for her announcement in Fredericton, where the lack of access to primary care is acute.
According to the council, 79 per cent of New Brunswickers have access to primary care, down from 93 per cent in 2017.
Holt invited New Brunswickers to measure the success of her plan based on those numbers, saying she was aiming to increase that percentage above 80 per cent and was "shooting" to get it higher than 90 per cent.
She also said reducing the 180,000 people on the wait list for a doctor would be another measure.
"Our government is prepared to be held accountable to these commitments," she said.
The Liberal leader said the $115.2 million cost included capital costs for clinic spaces and technology, and the hiring of non-clinical administrative staff for each centre.
Taking the paperwork burden off doctors and nurse practitioners would free up more of their time to see patients and would make it more attractive to recruit more professionals, she said.
Many family doctors "tell us they are drowning in a broken model of primary care that needs to be fixed," Holt said.
She said there are additional clinics ready to go in several communities, including in Sussex and Haut-Madawaska, but the province hasn't put enough supports in place, such as funding for administrative support.
In June, Health Minister Bruce Fitch announced several changes to reduce the administrative load on doctors and to encourage more of them to join collaborative care clinics.
Premier Blaine Higgs said Monday he wouldn't respond to the Liberal criticism but pointed out his government is also working on rolling out collaborative care clinics.
"We have to find different ways to deliver primary care," he said.
In July, Fitch said 26 of the 35 initiatives in the government's 2022 health plan have been completed.
That included connecting 59,000 people to New Brunswick Health Link, which allows people without a primary care provider to register to see someone in the interim.
The PC party's executive director Doug Williams said the previous Liberal government of Brian Gallant, which Holt worked for, had promised every New Brunswicker a family doctor.
"Today's announcement by Susan Holt continues a Liberal tradition of making big healthcare promises before an election that are completely ignored as soon as the vote is over," Williams said in an email.
New Brunswick Health Council CEO Stéphane Robichaud told CBC News recently that New Brunswick has among the highest provincial rates of family doctors in solo practices.
With many physicians retiring, that leaves patients susceptible to losing access to care, given no provincial co-ordination of primary care.
"That environment has not been managed at all," said Robichaud.
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With files from Nipun Tiwari