Pap test clinic set to open in Edmundston for doctorless patients, says Vitalité

People in northwestern New Brunswick who don't have a family doctor will soon have improved access to cervical cancer screening.

Vitalité Health Network plans to open a temporary Pap test clinic at the Edmundston Regional Hospital on Aug. 8.

The clinic was "prompted by the limited access to Pap tests in the community," said spokesperson Anthony Doiron.

"Vitalité recognized the importance of providing this service for screening cervical cancer, which is a priority in New Brunswick," he said in an emailed statement.

Pap tests detect abnormal cells in the cervix which, if left untreated, could develop into cancer.

Goal to make service permanent, expand

The service will be offered by a nurse practitioner.

Patients aged 21 and over, who don't have a family doctor or who need a Pap test, can call 506-739-2247, Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., to book an appointment.

"While the clinic is currently temporary, the goal is for it to become a permanent service within the community," said Doiron.

He did not provide any timeline, but said it will be offered at the hospital until a "new model of care is established."

Vitalité plans to expand this model to other regions by providing the service in new primary care clinics that will be established, Doiron added. He did not elaborate.

'Step in the right direction'

Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal MLA for Edmundston-Madawaska Centre and former opposition health critic, who raised the issue of limited access in the legislature in May after hearing from women in his riding, welcomed the announcement.

He called the temporary clinic "a step in the right direction," but contends it should become permanent "sooner than later."

There are "thousands and thousands" of people in the region who don't have a family doctor, according to D'Amours.

And unlike other health zones where a number of clinics offer Pap tests, the options in the Edmundston region, Zone 4, are extremely limited, a list on the Department of Health's website shows.

The University of Moncton's Edmundston campus offers the service only to students and only during the school year, while the Madawaska First Nation Health Centre provides Pap tests only for Indigenous people.

That leaves one doctor in Saint-Quentin who offers the service to the general population.

For people who live in the Upper Madawaska area, that's 150 kilometres or more away, said D'Amours. The hospital's emergency department does not offer Pap tests, he said.

"So many women in the Madawaska and Victoria [counties], they had no choice except to go elsewhere" — or go without.

Some not tested for 4 years

Some women told him they haven't been tested since 2019, he said. They were frustrated, angry, worried and scared.

It's ironic, said D'Amours, "because at the same time, the province [was] sending letters to those women saying, you know, 'Cervical cancer prevention and screening save [lives],' but if there is no way to have … a Pap test, it's very difficult to prevent."

More than 1,300 Canadians are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and it kills about 400 annually, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.

When we talk about cancer, it's serious.- Jean-Claude D'Amours, MLA for Edmundston-Madawaska Centre

Pap tests can help detect abnormalities before symptoms develop. Screening is recommended for people aged 21 to 69 every one to three years, depending on their previous results.

"When we talk about cancer, it's serious," said D'Amours. "So if we are talking about prevention, we need to make sure that not only [are we] sending letters, but we need to offer, you know, the clinics that can do the testing in the area."

Ultimately, he hopes to see the number of family doctors or primary health-care providers in the region increase, he said.

In the meantime, D'Amours said he hopes Vitalité has a good marketing campaign planned to raise awareness about the clinic being announced in the middle of summer, when many people are on holidays.