Doctors, nurse practitioners still needed for Tantramar clinic, Sackville group says

The co-chair of Sackville's Rural Community Action Group says while some improvements have been made to health care in the area, there is still a long way to go.

John Higham's comments come after an announcement from Horizon Health Network earlier in the week that the provincial budget included room for the recruitment of six new health care positions for the Tantramar primary health clinic.

The positions are a dietitian, a social worker, a patient navigator, a pharmacist, an administrative professional and a part-time respiratory therapist, according to the news release from Horizon.

"It will make the clinic as it stands more effective. We'll get people through quicker, we'll get them over to therapists very quickly, they'll be able to follow the progress of those clients much quicker, and they hopefully can add a few people," said Higham, Sackville's former mayor.

"But what's really missing is that we need physicians or nurse practitioners that can add to the days that we can have that clinic open."

The Sackville Memorial Hospital's emergency room is still not at 24/7 operation. (Tori Weldon/CBC)

Horizon spokesperson Kris McDavid said the clinic sees patients three days per week and is appointment-based.

The clinic was established last year as a way to provide short-term medical care for the patients of two doctors in the area who were closing their family practices.

Since opening in September, the clinic has served 600 patients, the Horizon news release said.

A community engagement session, set up by Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton, was held last week to discuss health care in the Sackville area, and Higham said that several hundred people showed up.

He said quite a few people expressed concerns about how long it will take to increase the clinic's capacity, but he said most of them understand that it isn't something Horizon could have solved without a larger budget allocation.

Hospital ER still not 24/7

Higham said he expected to see a larger part of the 2024-2025 budget be put toward bringing in doctors and nurses.

He said Horizon made it clear at the meeting it still aims to have a 24/7 emergency department at the Sackville Memorial Hospital, which is still only open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.

Higham said he knows there are people without family doctors waiting in the emergency department needing things such as prescription renewal. (Kory Siegers/CBC)

Higham said that Horizon noted that a couple of medical school students have expressed interest in coming to Tantramar after they graduate.

"They've got a whole bunch of people without any doctors throughout the whole province — we know that they have to go sit in the ER and hope that they get to see somebody there," he said.

"Even simple things [such as] needing a prescription renewed or just being checked up on ... so that they could continue with the same sort of therapy they've had — even that needs a family physician right now, and we just don't have access to them.

"That's why we thought that the budget would show a lot more urgency for moving on these things than what we did see."

The provincial health budget was increased by only $1.6 million over the province's revised spending figure this year — a far cry from the $600 million in new spending demanded by the New Brunswick Medical Society and the New Brunswick Nurses Union.

Several increases included $70 million more for regional health authorities, $22.9 million for new technologies and $20 million to continue expanding collaborative primary care centres.

Those new items are offset by one-time costs this year, according to the province, that won't repeat in the coming year, including the large amounts paid to private companies providing travel nurses to fill staffing gaps.