SACKVILLE, N.B. — Twenty-four hour ER coverage in Sackville could soon be a thing of the past.
The provincial government announced Feb. 11 it will cut emergency room operating hours at six New Brunswick hospitals starting March 11. The ERs will close from midnight to 8 a.m., with no patients accepted after 10 p.m.
In a press release, the government stated that the six hospitals affected – Sackville Memorial Hospital, Sussex Health Centre, Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph in Perth-Andover, Stella-Maris-de-Kent Hospital in Sainte-Anne-de Kent, Enfant-Jésus Hospital in Caraquet and Grand Falls General Hospital – are currently open 24 hours and see, on average, only five patients overnight.
“In critical situations, such as trauma, heart attacks and strokes – ambulances often take patients directly to larger centres where they can access the specialized services they need,” said Horizon Health Network president and CEO Karen McGrath. “These changes will allow physicians and nurse practitioners to see more patients in the daytime, in their community practice.”
A nurse practitioner will be hired to work the day shift in each of these six communities.
According to the release, nurse practitioner clinics will also open in the province’s largest urban centres to handle high case loads and reduce the provincial waitlist for a family doctor or nurse practitioner by 18,000 people or 54 per cent. In addition, nurse practitioners will also be added to emergency departments in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton to reduce wait times.
“These changes will allow physicians and nurse practitioners to see more patients in the daytime, in their community practice.”
The six hospitals will also see changes to its acute-care beds, with the 120 beds being converted to long-term chronic-care beds. The province stated the majority of these are already used today by seniors waiting for an alternative level of care in the community or a nursing home.
An update posted on the Horizon website about these changes explained that the "Inpatient beds will be converted to chronic care beds, and patients requiring acute or hospital care will no longer be admitted at this facility."
Horizon's long-term plan is to renovate the inpatient unit to focus on seniors, by creating an environment containing a dining room and common areas to be used for socializing and activities.
Sackville's day surgery program will also be cut, with specifics of this plan to be developed over the next six months.
"Surgical volumes will be incorporated into the operating rooms and ambulatory clinics at The Moncton Hospital," the update on Horizon stated.
Mental health services will be expanded in the six communities, with mental health clinicians being added to the resources that currently exist.
The regional health authorities also announced they are reviewing several service areas to deal with wait times, the aging population and rising demand for mental health services. Areas under review include the creation of a centralized co-ordination and referral model for specialists to reduce surgical wait times across the province, re-organizing laboratory services, improving food and environmental services, accelerating nursing home assessments, and creating more comprehensive home-care options in communities through the use of technology, such as text and email to enhance the existing Tele-Care 811 program.
The two health authority CEOs said these measures will help reallocate resources to enhance access to services, improve quality of care and make the health care system more sustainable.
“We are coping with a severe shortage of medical professionals, an aging population and increasing mental health needs”, said Gilles Lanteigne, CEO of Vitalité Health Network. “These challenges are becoming more and more visible systemwide . . . the changes we will be implementing are designed to improve access and ensure services are there when patients need them most.”
McGrath said these changes were proposed based on a thorough review of Horizon’s programs and services, the needs of its patients and clients, and the reality of staffing resources.
“In order to really improve care, we must make significant changes to the way we are currently doing things. These changes we have announced today prepare us for the challenges we are facing.”
