Help has arrived at the Sackville Memorial Hospital.
New Brunswick’s Horizon Health Network has announced it has successfully recruited and on-boarded five registered nurses and five nurse practitioners for the emergency department.
The hospital's emergency department has been plagued with temporary closures for over a year due to staff shortages and is only open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Newly elected Sackville Mayor Andrew Black said the news from Horizon is a huge positive for the community.
"Not just our community, the rural surrounding area and the importance of rural health care within the overall health network in the province," said Black. "Lots of people have to go to Amherst or Moncton for health care and they don't need to do that, arguably. They can come to the Sackville Memorial Hospital and that's what we're pushing for."
For several months, Horizon has been working with members of the Rural Health Action Group to come up with strategies to promote both the community and the hospital.
It's a joint effort between the health network and community leaders to sell Sackville, N.B., to health-care professionals.
Group co-chair John Higham said the collaboration is working well.
"Nobody's in charge but we're doing different things that complement the same goals and the same goals we share. Clearly. getting the hospital back up to date. Getting the nurses in and looking for physicians together," said Higham.
Horizon says more work needs to be done to get the emergency department back to operating safely 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The health network says four new emergency department physicians and two new registered nurses are needed.
The former Mayor of Sackville said finding four new doctors will be a tough task.
"It's an international market right now and we don't stand out. But what we have done is, we have our own town website. We have our own approach to the individuals. We have local doctors working so whenever someone puts their hand up to say they want to come here they will meet with them and talk them through the town. So, we're trying to stand out," said Higham.
Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is pleased the hospital is getting closer to full service but worries about health-care workers who have quit or left the province.
"There are also a significant number of people who have not been retained," said Mitton. "This is true for Horizon and Vitalité [Health Network]. Focus on retention needs to be one of the key aspects of the plan to make sure we can keep staffing our hospitals. Not just in rural areas, not just in Sackville. That needs to be a priority, recruitment and retention."
Mitton praised the work the Rural Health Action Group has done with Horizon.
"They've developed a collaborative relationship," said Mitton. "Having more decision-making and community engagement is really important with health care."
Horizon Health also announced it is moving forward with the construction of a second operating room as well as renovations to the existing operating room and emergency department.
