March 20, 2023
Years of underfunding worsened by the pandemic have patients facing long waits for tests and emergency care while hospitals experience closures and staff shortages. To fix healthcare in N.B., the President of the NBMS recommends:
- Improving collaborative care access so people get the healthcare they need at the right place and time, reducing pressures on acute care services. An evolution towards team-based care using the Patient's Medical Home model, a central hub for all healthcare needs would be used to achieve this;
- Implementing a HR strategy to address shortages of providers and staffing challenges. This would require a strategy with stakeholders, recruiting future physicians early in their education, while strengthening retention efforts through subsidies and incentives; and
- Modernizing health data collection, sharing, storage and usage for population projections, while updating the approach to privacy and access in a digital age.
The medical society’s also seeking government support to relieve the administrative burden on healthcare workers through standardization of forms requiring physician signatures and redirecting forms that can be completed by others. It also advocates for the adoption of legislation similar to Quebec’s caregiver allowance, an increased tax credit and an increase in home support services.
Related:
Relever les défis dans le système de santé du Nouveau-Brunswick - Société médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick