Nova Scotia’s plan to cut wait times in hospital emergency departments is getting attention across the country, and across the border in New Brunswick where there are many of the same issues.
The announcement in Nova Scotia on Wednesday follows the recent deaths of two women who waited hours for emergency care.
One part of Nova Scotia’s plan is to position care providers and patient advocates inside emergency department waiting rooms.
A similar plan of "patient monitors" is already in place at regional hospital waiting rooms throughout New Brunswick, following the death last summer of a man who waited hours for care at Fredericton’s Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital.
New Brunswick Health Minister Bruce Fitch says the patient monitors have been helpful “in case somebody’s health takes a turn for the worse.”
“There’s some history here that will hopefully have some good outcomes and prevent any negative outcomes,” says Fitch.
In July, the Chalmers Hospital incident also prompted PC Premier Blaine Higgs to dismiss former Horizon CEO John Dornan, former Health Minister Dorothy Shepherd, as well as the two elected health authority boards at Horizon and Vitalité.
Fitch won’t say if the province is considering any of the changes announced Wednesday by Nova Scotia’s PC government, but offers praise for the plan calling it “decisive.”
Fitch says the New Brunswick government is finding success in diverting people away from emergency departments, mentioning eVistNB which connects patients virtually to a licensed nurse practitioner or doctor.
Fitch also says the province is looking to expand the list of ailments New Brunswick pharmacists can write prescriptions for.
Liberal MLA Rob McKee says the Nova Scotia plan appears to give doctors a lead role in triaging patients for care “where they might be able to speed things up; getting people through or getting people sent home.”
Green Party leader David Coon says Nova Scotia’s plan for additional physician assistants and nursing practitioners is something to mirror in New Brunswick.
“In the ER, in Fredericton at the Chalmers, for years they’ve been trying to get more physician assistants in there with little luck,” says Coon.
Fitch, McKee, and Coon all agree staffing shortages remain the root cause of long ER wait times.
Bernadette Landry of the New Brunswick Health Coalition says Nova Scotia’s plan is “nice on paper,” but won’t work in any location without a serious commitment to hiring and keeping health-care workers.
“As long as the governments don’t look at the real problem, which is a lack of staff, the crisis is going to stay,” says Landry.
