The New Brunswick Nurses Union’s president is encouraging everyone to take part in public health care consultation sessions, which start in Sackville Thursday.
“We’re hoping that the community engagements get a good turnout,” said Paula Doucet, the union’s president.
Doucet says the union is encouraging its members to take part when the consultations take place in communities near them.
Doucet says improving overall population health is their main goal.
“Our health care system is very much based on an ill model, so it’s all about ‘how do we get you better?’” she said.
“We are advocating to actually invest upfront in preventative health care. If there was a serious commitment and investment in young people today, that would change the way a generation looks say 10, 15, 20 years from now.”
For people without family doctors, their first point-of-contact with the health care system is often ending up in the ER.
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But Doucet points to the value of nurse practitioner-led clinics as one possible solution to allow for earlier preventative care.
On behalf of doctors, no one from the New Brunswick Medical Society was available for an interview.
But in a statement, Dr. Jeff Steeves, the society’s president, says doctors are pleased to be taking part in the health care review process.
“We are preparing our detailed response to the government’s health care discussion paper that will be provided to (Health Minister Dorothy Shephard) and her team in the weeks to come,” the statement reads. “We believe our suggestions and strategies will further address health system gaps and how to improve access to care for New Brunswickers.”
The New Brunswick Health Council has a dual-mandate, responsible for public reporting on the performance of the health system and engaging people in improving the quality of health services through surveys and other methods.
Stéphane Robichaud, the council’s CEO, says there needs to be a focus for health authorities on continuing dialogue and educating people about the state of health care, demographic changes and health changes.
“The (regional health authorities) currently don’t know. They have to get better at this, they have to better understand what these realities are,” he said.
“And as they’re communicating these, sharing these as they’re learning, they’re going to get feedback — and everyone is going to get a better understanding of these realities.”
Robichaud says health council surveys have proven each community uses the health care system differently.
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“In these consultations, what we will be bringing forth is the reality that the reality can be so different depending on where you are in New Brunswick,” he said.
To that point, Robichaud references in-house surveys that look at data regarding people’s first point-of-contact to the health care system.
Options could vary from a doctor’s office, the ER, to after-hours clinic, as examples. He says the average percentage of the provincial population who visit the ER first is 11.4 per cent, but in the Kedgwick-Saint-Quentin-Grimmer area, that number is 67 per cent.
Meanwhile, in the Riverview-Coverdale area, that number is only 1.6 per cent.
Another statistic Robichaud references is that 19 per cent of the population has three or more chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension and arthritis. On the low-end of the average is Dieppe-Memramcook, where Robichaud says 12 per cent of people in those communities have three or more chronic illnesses. In nearby Hillsborough-Riverside Albert-Alma, that number is at 29 per cent.
Virtual engagement sessions take place Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning with Sackville this Thursday and ending with Edmundston on April 27.
A full schedule and link to register can be found on the provincial website.
Results from the consultations will be considered in a five-year provincial health plan.