Methinks Higgy must recall what his buddy Krissy Baby Austin must recall what he and the other talking talking heads were saying on CBC before he got elected nearly 10 years ago N'esy Pas?
Folks should wonder why no link is offered to the Political Panel Podcast. Methinks its because Teddy told Megan that folks in Sackville should go to Nova Scotia for emergency care when their hospital is closed N'esy Pas?
Health minister hints at more advanced-care paramedics
Ted Flemming defends new health-care reforms on Political Panel podcast
CBC News· Posted: Feb 16, 2020 8:00 AM AT
New Brunswick Health Minister Ted Flemming says the province is looking at adding more advanced-care paramedics in New Brunswick. (CBC)
New Brunswick's health minister says the province wants to bring in more advanced-care paramedics as it and the two health authorities restructure services and staff in several rural hospitals.
"Advanced-care paramedics are part of the ongoing, forward movement here," Ted Flemming said. The recent announcement that the province will be cutting overnight emergency room services in six hospitals unleashed a wave of anxiety and anger from residents concerned with timely access to emergency care.
The service gap, which starts March 11, also troubles many MLAs, including the leader of the PC-friendly People's Alliance.
Speaking on the CBC New Brunswick Political Panel, Kris Austin said he's concerned about extending the distance to emergency rooms for some New Brunswickers.
Austin, an ambulance service hawk, questioned how the extra distance will impact an already strained ambulance-service provider.
People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin says he wants to see more paramedics, including more advanced-care paramedics, added following the emergency room service cuts. (CBC)
He wants the province to hire more advanced-care paramedics — "emergency rooms on wheels," as he put it — and increase the number of paramedics in the affected areas.
There are 70 primary-care paramedics in the province who have advanced-care training but aren't able to use all of their skills.
"That's absolutely ridiculous, even without this announcement, but when you add this announcement to it," Austin said.
"If you're going to close those emergency rooms, you have to ensure that paramedics are going to get there not 45 minutes later but in a reasonable amount of time."
Flemming, who was also on the panel, agreed with Austin.
"They need to be practising to their scope of practice. We're in the process of doing that now and transitioning into that as part of this."
But that was about the extent of common ground the four panellists found.
Changes are 'unacceptable,' Liberal says
Unacceptable, disingenuous and ridiculous were among the terms used by opposition MLAs criticizing the provincial government and the two health authorities' response to a shortage of doctors and nurses.
Flemming said he wasn't surprised by the adverse reaction many had to the reforms, which will also see 120 acute-care beds at the hospitals converted into long-term-care beds.
The decision sparked protests and political strife — even within the governing Progressive Conservative party — that may lead to a snap election.
Health Minister Ted Flemming announced the health-care changes during a press conference Tuesday morning. (CBC)
Facing the panellists from the opposition parties, Flemming balked at the Liberal pledge to reinstate 24-hour service.
Liberal MLA J.C. D'Amours said the service cuts were "unacceptable" and put people's lives at risk. He said it's one thing for the opposition to be critical, but there are "medical people who are saying it makes no sense, even those who are living in these areas."
The Edmundston-Madawaska Centre MLA said the province needs to do a better job of training and retaining health-care professionals.
But when asked how the Liberals would address the issue, D'Amours was light on specifics, saying they would keep the ERs open and hire more nurse practitioners — the latter being something the PCs are in the process of doing.
Flemming said the changes are "a necessity."
"You can't reinstate a lack of people, a lack of human resources," he told the panel.
Staffing shortages
Fleming said 35 per cent of physicians and 40 per cent of both nurses and lab technicians will reach retirement age within the next five years. Staffing shortages led to 23 service interruptions at New Brunswick hospitals last year.
It was announced Thursday a doctor shortage forced the Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency room to close from 4 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday.
The reforms, which start March 11, are an attempt to cope with staffing shortages plaguing the provincial health-care system. Closing the emergency rooms from midnight to 8 a.m. will allow doctors and new nurse practitioners to see more patients in the daytime, the province has said.
The affected ERs saw an average of five visits a night, and most of them were not emergencies, according to the two health authorities.
Lack of consultation
D'Amours was joined by Green MLA Megan Mitton in saying the government failed to properly consult — or even attempt to consult — other MLAs, health-care professionals and the public.
Mitton, who described the ER cuts as an attack on rural communities, said the PCs should have struck an all-party legislative committee to investigate the proposal and offer input.
The Memramcook-Tantramar MLA, who represents Sackville, one of the affected communities, said the reforms were not raised by Horizon officials during recent consultations with the town about the future of health-care in the community.
Green MLA Megan Mitton says the government did not properly consult the public before announcing the health-care reforms. (CBC)
Mitton said the talks were "disingenuous."
"I think it's important that when there are decisions being made about our communities, about our health-care and about our hospitals that we are part of the conversation," Mitton said.
The six hospitals affected are the Sussex Health Centre, the Sackville Memorial Hospital, Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph in Perth-Andover, Stella-Maris-de-Kent Hospital in Sainte-Anne-de-Kent, Enfant-Jésus Hospital in Caraquet and the Grand Falls General Hospital.
The health authorities will also increase addiction and mental health services in those facilities.
Folks should wonder why no link is offered to the Political Panel Podcast. Methinks its because Teddy told Megan that folks in Sackville should go to Nova Scotia for emergency care when their hospital is closed N'esy Pas?
SarahRose Werner
Reply to @David Amos: No, it's because the link isn't available yet. The latest podcast available on the Political Panel Podcast page (with the pickled peppers) is from February 6.
David Amos
Reply to @SarahRose Werner: DUHHH??? Try tellin me something I don't know FYI I heard a portion of it last week and have been waiting for it to be uploaded ever since in order to prove what I said is true
Chantal LeBouthi
NB will get 2.1 billions from the federal starting in April
SarahRose Werner
Reply to @Chantal LeBouthi: You mean in transfer payments? We get them every year. They go to address existing expenses. This isn't "new" money and it doesn't mean we have extra to spend.
Chantal LeBouthi
Reply to @SarahRose Werner: Incompetent governance from conservatives and liberals during the past two decades have put NB where it is
SarahRose Werner
Reply to @Chantal LeBouthi: Agreed, but the fact still is that getting this year's transfer payments aren't, in and of themselves, going to solve anything.
Larry Larson
Reply to @Chantal LeBouthi: The past 6 decades at least!
David Amos
Reply to @Chantal LeBouthi: Methinks Vickers and his crew hope to enjoy squandering it after the dust settles over the very pending election N'esy Pas?
Ian Scott
NBMS certainly seems to be sitting on the sidelines this time, letting Flemming do what he does.Payback I guess for his earlier contempt for docs. Either way its a difficult issue as staffing issues become more acute with each year as the medical cohorts age.Its been talked about for years . Technology has helped for some things hindered others as things get more complex to treat. Population cohort aging ahead of any meaningful preparation for nursing beds and staff adding to the pile. Only so much can be done unless a provincial budget blows past 50% of all dollars spent on healthcare. Feds per usual somewhat to blame as they cut the funding transfers as well. Some of that due to lack of control processes to see that health funding went to health and not general budgets as in this place.Even with that, millions come from private donations , and we still come up short.
David Amos
Reply to @Ian Scott: Methinks many doctors would agree that everything political is always about the money and that their consultants no how to play the wicked game very well N'esy Pas?
Terry Tibbs
I *must* be mistaken? Wasn't it just a short time ago there was a shortage of bilingual paramedics that simply couldn't be rectified? Maybe our health minister is simply misinformed? It's time for this gong show to end.
David Amos
Reply to @Terry Tibbs: Methinks many folks would agree that the circus is getting more entertaining with each passing day. Furthermore "The Powers That Be" in NB are well aware that come Monday morning many folks have protests planned all over New Brunswick in order to have a little fun with their MLA on "Family Day" N'esy Pas?
Adrian Baerlocher
Wow, hinting at hiring more paramedics after making these cuts. Lucky us. The ERs close in 3 weeks. The lack of consultation is starting to show. Laying off nurses while talking about staffing shortages. I’m being spammed with Horizon ads pushing these changes. What a waste of time and money. We’re going to waste even more money undoing these reckless changes. Pathetic.
Terry Tibbs
Reply to @Adrian Baerlocher: This is what I call "pathetic". The building is there, the lights and heat/cool is on, there are patient beds in the building with patients in them requiring 24 hour care. Tell me please, exactly what is the extra cost?
SarahRose Werner
Reply to @Terry Tibbs: If you just wanted to have a room with chairs where emergency patients could wait until staff shows up in the morning, that would be pretty cheap. But if you want to hire doctors with ER training, additional nurses who aren't already busy looking after inpatients, technical staff to run x-rays, CT scans, etc - all of that costs money. Is it worth it to pay all those staff members to sit around all night waiting for 1-2 emergency cases to show up?
Ian Scott
Reply to @Adrian Baerlocher: who said anything about laying off nurses?
Adrian Baerlocher
Reply to @Ian Scott: Nurses in Sackville and Sussex have apparently received layoff notices, presumably they have at the other hospitals as well. Apparently up to 50 just on the Horizon side.
Terry Tibbs
Reply to @SarahRose Werner: These small hospitals are not hiring ER doctors now, local GPs take turns at covering the ER and the patients in the beds. Nurses cover the floor. There might, or might not be technical staff overnight now, why add, or complicate matters? They intend on closing the labs anyway citing shortage of trained staff. As our clueless government wishes to point out there are maybe 5 patients showing up most nights, nothing the existing staff likely can,and do, handle.
David Amos
Reply to @Adrian Baerlocher: Please say it ain't so
David Amos
Reply to @Terry Tibbs: Methinks should consider Teddy's advice and move to Nova Scotia this summer Hopefully I would finally get a Medicare Card that I could use in hospitals with better services N'esy Pas?
David Sampson
The decision by health authorities to walk out of a meeting in Perth Andover is troubling. Clearly the mayor has a right, indeed a duty, to be at the meeting and yet bureaucrats claim it an “ invitation only “ meeting so when community members, including the mayor showed up they simply left. The Premier may want to claim otherwise but those in rural NB particularly along the French shore know exactly what his motives are!
Ian Scott
Reply to @David Sampson: You know exactly what kind of a morass it would turn into with a whole bunch of peopel screaming and yelling and occupying the rooms for the media and nothing getting talked about.
David Sampson
Reply to @Ian Scott: Don't disagree with you Ian but don't you think it's rather basic to invite the mayor!!!!!!!!!!
David Amos
Reply to @David Sampson: The Mayor was invited but they stood her up
Perth-Andover mayor unimpressed after Horizon cancels meeting over safety concerns
Invitation-only meeting for 25 community leaders cancelled after 150 people showed up
Jordan Gill· CBC News· Posted: Feb 15, 2020 6:04 PM AT
Perth-Andover Mayor Marianne Bell wants some answers after Horizon Health officials cancelled a meeting on Friday. (Shane/Fowler)
While Horizon Health says a meeting at Perth-Andover's Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph was cancelled on Friday due to safety concerns, Perth-Andover Mayor Marianne Bell says those concerns were unfounded.
Bell said she is "not impressed" with what happened.
The hospital is one of the six scheduled for a cut in emergency room hours.
Horizon Health said the meeting was meant as an invitation-only affair featuring 25 community leaders, but said 150 people showed up.
"The RCMP were called to the hospital, and it was not a safe environment to conduct the meeting as planned," Kris McDavid, a spokesperson for Horizon Health, said in an email.
"We regret not being able to meet with community leaders to discuss health reform."
But Bell doesn't understand why Horizon thought there was a safety issue.
"There was nothing dangerous going on," said Bell.
"People were in chairs and standing and talking … I still don't know why they didn't come out and bring those of us who they had invited into a meeting like we had been invited to."
Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph will have its emergency room hours cut under a provincial plan. (CBC)
Bell said she was invited by the regional health authority, but was never told the meeting was cancelled.
"I didn't know the meeting was cancelled," said Bell. "I just knew that somebody said they saw them going out the back door."
'Facing a crisis'
Criticism has been lobbed at the government and the province's two health authorities since the move to reduce hours was announced on Tuesday.
The Liberals have threatened to try to bring down the government over the plans, while Premier Blane Higgs is facing opposition within his own party. One MLA, Bruce Northrup, said he can't support the plan and another, Robert Gauvin, decided to leave the party and sit as an Independent.
Health Minister Ted Flemming announced the health-care changes during a press conference Tuesday morning. (CBC)
"It should come as no surprise to anyone in this province, that our health-care system, is facing a crisis," said Health Minister Ted Flemming. "That status quo is simply not acceptable because the status quo leads to deterioration."
The affected hospitals will now close between midnight and 8 a.m., and stop accepting patients after 10 p.m.
Other hospitals affected are:
Sussex Health Centre.
Sackville Memorial Hospital, where surgical services will also close and be shifted to Moncton.
Stella-Maris-de-Kent Hospital in Sainte-Anne-de-Kent.
Enfant-Jésus Hospital in Caraquet.
Grand Falls General Hospital.
Bell thinks cancelling the meeting had less to do with safety and more to do with difficulty selling the plan to reduce emergency room hours.
"They might be saying the security thing, but I think they just don't have the support in place to put this plan forward," said Bell. "I think they've got to start thinking about putting the brakes on it and coming up with a better plan."
Radio silence
Bell said she still is waiting to hear back from Horizon Health.
"If I don't meet with somebody when I invited them I would send them an apology and I would set up a new time to meet," said Bell.
"But it seems to me they don't want to meet with us because they don't have a rationale, a logical rationale, for these decisions."
Bell said the next step for the community is holding a rally, along with the other five affected communities, against the changes on Monday.
Methinks Kris McDavid should explain to me and the RCMP real slow what Horizon Health has been saying about me N'esy Pas?
David Amos
Methinks somebody should ask the Mayor why I was not worth talking to last week Perhaps its because her buddy Flemming won't take the "Stay" off my Medicare Card N'esy Pas?
Larry Larson
Reply to @David Amos: What does "Stay" on your card mean?
David Amos
Reply to @Larry Larson: It Means No Medicare for me Hence I been having to pay the emergency rooms and the doctors for my visits as they check to see what is wrong with my old ticker
David Amos
Reply to @David Amos: Methinks it should have been of interest to some folks if they bothered to check this Mayor's biography they would have noticed that she brags of being married to Dr. David Bell Hence she should know everything from the inside out of the gate N'esy Pas?
Larry Larson
Reply to @David Amos: How can that be legal? Assuming you are a Canadian citizen who has lived in NB for at least 3 months.
David Amos
Reply to @Larry Larson: Why else would I be preparing to sue the government again? You do know that I ran in 7 elections thus far?
Larry Larson
Why is it that Conservatives always call the police when citizens (voters) gather to talk to them? What are they so afraid of that they cannot face their fellow citizens?
Marguerite Deschamps
Reply to @Larry Larson: chicken!
David Amos
Reply to @Marguerite Deschamps: Methinks I can think of a few liberals who are far too chicken to use their real names as they offer their two bits worth in this circus N'esy Pas?
David Peters
Reply to @David Amos: Why was it that Samuel Langhorne Clemens went by Mark Twain?
To write political letters. Considering the mob-like nature of politics...it makes sense.
David Amos
Reply to @David Peters: Why should I care chicken little liberals in light of the fact that the RCMP and the FBI know that I was never afraid of the mob or anyone else?
Council Members Mayor – Marianne Bell Deputy Mayor – Sheila Cummings
Councilors: Jason Green Paul Kinney Cindy McLaughlin Dave Hoyt
Marianne Bell
Originally from Southern Ontario, Marianne Moved to Perth-Andover from Halifax in 1993 with her husband, Dr. David Bell. Their two children, Victoria and Owen, were born and raised in Perth-Andover.
Marianne serves as Chair of the Carleton Victoria Community Vocational Board, conductor of Perth-Andover Community Choir, member of the board of the Rotary Club of Perth-Andover, founder/facilitator of Perth-Andover Book Club, and in numerous capacities at her church. She has worked and volunteered in adult education and taught English at Southern Victoria High School for 5 years. She has a B.A. (English Literature) from the University of Western Ontario, an M.A. (English) from the University of Toronto, an M.Ed. (Adult Education) from Dalhousie University, and a B.Sc. (Secondary Education) from the University of Maine At Presque Isle.
In her free time, Marianne enjoys travelling, bicycling, walking, and rug-hooking.
Hotel Dieu St. Joseph Hospital 273-7100 New Brunswick Extra Mural Program 273-7222 Mental Health Centre 273-4701 River Valley Physiotherapy 273-9601 CHIMO Hotline 1-800-667-5005 Go Ahead Seniors - Regional Coordinator: Janet Gee 273-6229
Brookside Professional Centre, 14 Tribe Rd., Perth-Andover, N.B. E7H 3R6
Dr. David W. Bell – 273-9525
Dr. Peter G. B. Moore – 273-9529
Optometrists: Dr. Louiselle St. Amand 273-6854 Dr. Lillian Linton 273-6808 Dentist: Dr. Terrance Shaw & Dr. Geoff Moore 273-6460 Pharmacies: Johnson Pharmasave 273-2882 Lewis Phamacy 273-3772
A little blue bird landed on my shoulder & tweeted that whereas there is nothing much to do a lot of folks are planning to have some fun protesting with and or against their MLA on Family Day Methinks for very valid reasons N'esy Pas?
Most grocery and retail stores are closed, but some recreation spots are open
CBC News· Posted: Feb 16, 2020 7:00 AM AT
Wondering what's open and closed on Family Day? We've got you covered. (optimarc / Shutterstock)
Monday is Family Day and many retail shops, public services and attractions won't be open. This is the third time New Brunswick has celebrated Family Day, since the holiday was introduced in 2017 by the province.
To make sure you're prepared for the holiday, here's a list of what's open and closed on Monday.
Retail and grocery
All Sobeys stores in the province are closed.
New Brunswick Walmarts are closed.
Atlantic Superstores are closed.
NB Liquor stores are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday and closed Family Day.
Fredericton's Regent Mall and Moncton's CF Champlain Place and Saint John's McAllister Place are closed.
The Saint John City Market is closed.
Government offices, public services
Fredericton Transit will not be operating.
Saint John Transit will operate on a Sunday schedule.
Codiac Transpo will not be running.
Service New Brunswick is closed.
Service Canada is open.
Public libraries in the province are closed Monday.
Recreation
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton is open 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday
In Saint John, the New Brunswick Museum is closed Mondays until May 15.
Methinks I should disclose that a little blue budgie landed on shoulder and tweeted in my ear that whereas there is nothing much to do a lot of folks are planning to have some fun protesting with and or against their MLA on "Family Day" for very valid reasons N'esy Pas?
Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph will have its emergency room hours cut under a provincial plan. (CBC)
