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David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos @alllibertynews and 49 others




http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2018/08/cbc-and-their-economist-buddy-richard.html



#nbpoli#cdnpoli



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/economist-richard-saillant-health-reforms-1.5469569

Inaction on health-care crisis hurts everyone, economist says

'The system has already been brought down to its knees,' says Richard Saillant

CBC News· Posted: Feb 20, 2020 4:17 PM AT



Sackville Memorial Hospital is one of six rural hospitals in the province where emergency room hours were threatened to be cutback last week. (CBC)


New Brunswick is entering a "red zone" of health care and aging, according to a Moncton economist.

Richard Saillant said the health care crisis is about to get much worse, especially if the government chooses to do nothing, as happened this week.

Last week, the government announced it would close overnight emergency rooms at six hospitals, but stepped back from the idea on Sunday after an outcry from the affected communities.

Saillant said the province's aging population and lack of money, combined with overworked health care staff, are factors that will continue to exacerbate existing problems if the government fails to act.

Potential for 'complete catastrophe'

The oldest baby boomers are now in their 70s, an age where more hospital care is required, Saillant said. At the same time, boomers are retiring from their jobs, leading to gaps in the health-care field and overworked staff.

"When you have hundreds and hundreds of job vacancies, very well-paying jobs, in the health networks and no one to take them up, that means there's an extra pressure on the staff that is already there," Saillant said in an interview with Information Morning Fredericton.

"The system has already been brought down to its knees."



Economist Richard Saillant said New Brunswick's health care system has already been 'brought down to its knees.' (Twitter)

In a bid to attract more health-care workers, provinces will begin competing to recruit more workers. This competition will cause a spike in health-care worker's salaries, Saillant said.

He said New Brunswick and other rapidly aging provinces will need more money from Ottawa to sink into health care and the recruitment of nurses and doctors.

 

Richard Saillant is an author and economist, based in Moncton. He says the current healthcare crisis is only the beginning for New Brunswick, and we're entering a "red zone of health care and aging'. 13:40


"Ottawa at some point is going to have to provide more money to all of Atlantic Canada because it's aging faster."

He also acknowledged it isn't entirely feasible for the province to recruit its way out of what he deemed a "human resource crisis."

"I do hope that we can recruit partly our way through this crisis because if not, then it's just going to be a complete catastrophe."

No use for 'window-dressing' consultation

Dr. Allison Dysart, who works in Sackville Memorial Hospital's emergency department, one of the places that almost lost overnight service, said problems in the health-care system have been hyped. He agrees the system is in crisis in some ways, however.

"As a health-care provider, we don't seem to be given the tools to do the job very well," Dysart said.
"I have patients waiting … they're on the surgical wait list. They're waiting a year and a half to get an operation done."

Dysart was on Horizon's medical advisory committee, one of the network's highest decision-making bodies, but resigned after the health-care changes were announced.



Dr. Allison Dysart is a general practitioner in Sackville and works in the hospital's emergency department. 9:15


"I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach," he said, citing a lack of consultation.

Dysart was upset with the way the two health authorities handled the announcement and the subsequent retraction of the plan.

"Their response is, 'Well, you people just didn't understand.'… I mean that's pretty insulting stuff.'"

He was skeptical about the government's plan to consult communities about steps to address problems, including the shortage of doctors and nurses.

If the health authorities have already made up their minds about what needs to be done, the consultation is just "window-dressing," Dysart said.
He also believes the people proposing cuts in rural New Brunswick don't live in rural New Brunswick and won't be affected by them.

Saillant would not comment on whether the cancelled reforms amounted to an attack on rural New Brunswick, but he said everyone deserves access to quality health care.

"Inaction right now is an attack on all New Brunswickers," he said. "When it comes to health care, our postal code should be much less important than the quality of care we provide to our seniors."


 
















Holly Mossing
Dr. Dysart is being disingenuous. No rural doctor wants to give up lucrative overnight shifts ($150+/hour to see 2-5 patients in 8 hours and nap in between), but that doesn’t justify keeping acute care facilities open when the aging population needs better daytime access to supportive and preventative care.  


Terry Tibbs
Reply to @Holly Mossing:
Ok, so your answer is to tell everyone not to get sick, or injured, randomly? Shall we pick a convenient day, say the 3rd Friday afternoon of each month, between the hours of 2pm and 4pm.
So, listen up NBers, health care is available the 3rd Friday of every month, between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, save up your sickness/injury until then and we will be happy to help you.
Good plan.
































Ian Scott
The blah blah blah but not one piece of suggestion for improvement other than what , throw more money at it?. You already see its going to cost more to compete. Or do you mean it was the processing that was not laid out ?. If people are on wait lists and acute care beds are blocked what is your brilliant suggestion? Its either reforms or private care to relieve public care.It would be a decade to add to current major hospitals room and build nursing homes and provide increased mental health etc. Or its wait till we add to debt to cover it. 












Chantal LeBouthi
rural communities are not to blamed stop attacking rural communities for big cities friend 
























John Young
Here are my drastic solutions.

1. Vitalize Resource Economy
2. Streamline Language Duality to reduce Waste
3. Penalize people who work in the underground economy.
4. Make corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
5. Quit smoking
6. Weight reduction programmes
7. Encourage Innovation
8. Stop blaming Government for trying to balance budgets.






























Leo-Guy Leblanc
Not certain if the action is still the same but I do know young people, including some relatives, graduating as nurses less than 10 years ago, are offered full time part time jobs in hospitals. The rate of pay is great but if you are only allowed to work 20 hours a week, how can you make a living in raising a family and paying off student loans. Most of them have to get a second part-time job, mostly in senior's residences so no wonder they get burned out, move away to another province or quit and now we have a resources problem. 

Dr Allison Dysart

2 Main St,
Sackville, NB
E4L 4A3
Phone 506-536-4441

   
Dr. Brian O'Neill





https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/doctors-in-nb-close-offices/article25429330/

Higgs may have jeopardized reputation for making politically risky decisions in health reform fallout

'The concern here is that the implementation plan was just not well thought-out,' Higgs said

Jacques Poitras· CBC News· Posted: Feb 18, 2020 7:06 AM AT



New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs announced Sunday he was cancelling plans to cut overnight ER services in six rural hospitals. (CBC News)


A week is a long time in politics, they say, and that was especially true during the last seven days in New Brunswick.

Last Tuesday, the Higgs government's reputation for making tough, politically risky decisions was at the forefront of the announcement of changes to small-town hospitals.

If there was political flak, "we're going to do it anyway," Health Minister Ted Flemming declared.

"A government has to govern. There's been enough studies, enough consultations, enough reviews, enough, enough, enough."

The CEOs of the province's two health authorities were "fabulously qualified" to lead the reform along with their staffs and boards, he said, "to the point that New Brunswickers should be thankful and grateful that we have these people in New Brunswick."

Fast forward to Premier Blaine Higgs's news conference on Monday, when he said that the plan was not as "ready to go" as the CEOs had said it was, and that its implementation was "not well-defined."
"I did expect that they would have a greater ability to roll out the plan," he said of the CEOs, Karen McGrath at Horizon and Gilles Lanteigne at Vitalité.

"I was disappointed that that was not the case. Anyone would be disappointed that we weren't able to roll this out seamlessly."

Too many questions, few answers

According to Higgs, too many questions came up in the intervening week that lacked answers.

With six small-town emergency departments shutting down between midnight and 8 a.m. starting next month, would there be more advanced-care paramedics to accommodate the increase in patients travelling greater distances to city hospitals?

Would there still be palliative care in those smaller hospitals?

Were doctors spelled off from overnight shifts in the ER actually practising in those communities, allowing them to see more patients during the day, as the health authorities promised?


Protests were held outside some of the affected hospitals, including the Sussex Health Centre, pictured above. (Graham Thompson/CBC)


"Those questions should have been clear, answered, without any concern," Higgs said. But, he said, they weren't.

And apparently they had not been asked by anyone in his government  — a startling admission for a premier who emphasizes managerial competence and precise, measurable achievements.

"I'm an engineer," Higgs told a business audience in Saint John last year. "I love Gantt charts," a kind of bar graph showing timelines and targets.

"I love measurements. I love people to hold accountable: like 'Who owns this?' and 'When are you coming back with a report?' and 'what's that report going to look like?' and 'When are we going to see results,' so that we have a timeline."

How, then, did no one ask the right questions about the health plan before it was released — especially given that versions of the plan have been floating around for more than a decade?

Higgs acknowledged Monday he had not been shown a Gantt chart, "which I would normally see," for the health reforms.

"I was assured it was all done," he said, "because we've been trying to do it for so long."

He explained that as premier he wants to delegate decision-making to "people in their own divisions, to take responsibility for their everyday activities."

In this case, though, it took a week of protests for Higgs to discover there was a lack of forethought about the spinoff effects on other parts of the system.

Health reform plans aren't dead yet

The resulting fallout took his minority government to the brink of a snap election call. It also cost him the only francophone MLA and minister he had, Robert Gauvin. He'll now lack that perspective in future caucus and cabinet deliberations.
How, then, to go forward?

"Doing nothing is not an option," Higgs said. "It's never been an option for me. Taking a step back is necessary."

The plan isn't dead.

"I don't know of another plan," Higgs said.

It will be the basis for consultations the province will organize this spring — the consultations Flemming said a week ago were no longer necessary. That will include visits by Higgs himself to the six communities with affected hospitals.



Rallies were planned for all six of the rural hospitals in opposition of the province's plan to close emergency rooms next month. (Philip Drost/CBC)


But the premier added he'd be glad to hear alternatives that address the pressing issues that still need urgent solutions: not enough doctors and nurses to allow the system to care for an aging population.
And how should people respond the next time he says he's standing firm on an unpopular policy and is willing to go into an election to ensure it goes ahead?

"If I'm in a position again, which I hope to be, to say 'I have this plan to roll out, I have assurances we can do this,' maybe I'll ask more questions. But I do ask a lot of questions in any case, so I'm not sure how many more I would ask.

"But I would expect for people to be accountable for delivering what they promise to deliver, and I have to rely on people to be able to do that."

So, he said, he would stake his ground "on different issues going forward, on the basis that I believe in what the plan is, that it will be well executed," he said.

"The concern here is that the implementation plan was just not well thought-out."

For many who believed in Higgs — who were confident he was a non-politician willing to make the hard choices — that distinction was lost, the reversal particularly disappointing.

"I truly thought he was stronger," Bob McVicar, a Saint John businessman and Conservative supporter, said in a social media post. "He just choked like the rest have in the past. I'm suddenly wondering what makes him different from Gallant."

At the end of a critical week for Higgs and his government, that comparison — to the former Liberal premier he often accused of avoiding difficult decisions — may be the cruellest critique of all.








Commenting is now closed for this story.




David Amos
Methinks Higgy's concerns became instantly boring as soon and the news broke about what Jean Gauvin's bouncing baby boy had said over our radio airwaves N'esy Pas?






























Rob Meagher
Maybe take a look at the costs of claiming to be the only Province in Canada to be bilingual. This coming from the poorest Province trying to support duality.


David Amos 


Michel Forgeron
I don't know of course, but I think he may have mistakenly believed this would go over well with the public. If it had done so in the timing of implementation mentioned (mid-March I think) , it would have been positive for him and a very good opportunity to call an election. PCs aren't my usual pick, but in my opinion he has done a pretty good job. What bugs me more than this is the NBPower fiasco.


David Amos 



























Graeme Scott
Whether the fault is with the hospital corporations or with the minister and senior staff at the Dept of Health it was Premier Higgs job to ensure that everybody had their ducks in a row before this was announced. Sounds like maybe somebody gave him assurances and then let him down. The points raised in opposition and "what about..." questions were predictable and answers should have been ready to go. There was also no clear explanation of the benefits and how saved resources would be redeployed. Whether this is a good idea or not, it was clearly a communications failure. 


john smith



























john smith
i find no care for a few hours a day much less concerning then forced medications pushed onto the youth of our province i would love to see the gov fall if not just to rid ourselves of the minister of ed comrade cardy






























Mack Leigh
Thank you Premier Higgs ! Thank you for not being another shallow , selfish politician who worries only about " jeopardizing your reputation " but rather one that is at least trying to fix our extremely broken province.... Coon and Vickers are more than welcome to step forward with their viable plans that will fix our healthcare fiasco.....



Roland Stewart
Personally I'd like to see him gather up the balls to take on NB power and make changes that are for the people. That house needs to be cleaned big time.


David Amos 


Fred Brewer
This debacle is reminiscent of the Libs failed bid to sell NB Power which also failed due to a lack of public consultations. A smart premier learns from his mistakes. A wise premier learns from not only his own mistakes but from the mistakes of others.