The health care system in New Brunswick is broken; broken is unsafe. Those with the 'inside track' know that it has to be rebuilt from the ground up and those those who've bee playing both ends against the middle in aid of giving the impression that things are 'just fine' need to `fess up to become part of the solution rather than spinning a narrative that continues to hide their part in the failures.
Hospitals are short staffed, doctors are aging out of general practice and specialties with not enough numbers to replace them, rural medicine is practically non-existent and that is the one thing that will allow the system to ‘get up off the floor’
New Brunswick is a province of seniors, elderly and geriatrics with immigration flow being more of a stopping off, checking it out and moving on place for those with greater mobility. We need to incentivize them staying to work and become part of the larger fabric of the culture of New Brunswick. That comes with exploring what brought them to ‘the picture province’ in the first place. Health care workers are exhausted, burned out, ready to throw in the towel. Were that to happen, the most vulnerable among us would be tossed into even greater emotional crisis, drowning in fear of the unknown.
Rethinking how medical care is delivered must be pushed to the forefront of any planning. Tools are still available; they just need a good cleaning so that people can see that there’s still value in the old ways. People first medical practice is a valuable way to more actively involve patients in their care, each and every day, from morning to bedtime; from toddling to geriatric slow walking or even no walking.
Health care delivery must become a collaborative effort that includes the community; recipients of health care must be more involved in looking after themselves and even their neighbour who struggles. The cost savings with stepped proactivity will be significant over time as stress is removed from services within the hospital setting.
There’s a pervasive complacency amongst users of health care services that everything will carry on as it’s always done regardless of the systemic abuses of the system meant to care for all. How can it carry on under the weight of what I call ‘frequent fliers’, with their over-use because they failed at home to meet their needs to be responsible grown-ups. With that comes responsible child care, expanding their skillset, from appreciating the importance of breakfast to knowing that early bedtime is vital to growing children.
We must correct course in our own homes, acknowledging our part in current gaps in care. Track your own ER visits in the last 6 months; the last year. How many were really urgent or more fear/panic driven? Would a telephone conversation with a doctor have allayed concerns? Let’s talk house calls, shall we. There’s a place for them.
I haven’t visited a hospital ER in years and I like it that way. I would often tell my late father who practiced medicine in Bath, NB for decades that I was confident I’d live a long and healthy life in spite of challenges to daily living. His brother, also a doctor, told me more than once that’d I’d be long-lived because of my disabling conditions, to show others ‘how it’s done’. Perhaps he got it right. I’m still tickin’ along with no major health complaints. When I moved to my current home in 1991, one of my first guests was the man who would become my family doctor until he retired; he made house calls. The late Dr. David Wagener was recommended to me by my doctor in Fredericton, the late Dr. B.P. Thorpe. She thought David and I would be a good fit. She was right.
During the height of COVID, I hunkered down, secure in the knowledge that I had enough healthy eats to feed a small army for several months.. From the 70s when I gained independence from parents to today, I am mindful of the choices I make with regard to how they impact my health and continued independent living as a person aging with disability.
I’m heartened to see that our rates of COVID are the lowest in the country and that as people who are now free of many of the COVID confinement restrictions are out and about in the community, they’re making a concerted effort to be forward moving with mindfulness of the needs of others.
Various components of our health care system outside the hospital setting have been in place when we were in the thick of COVID and during the dialing down of restrictions to movement. Financial assistance, food programs and mental health resources have been available to help families recover. It’s an ongoing process and it’s incumbent upon on all of us to be actively involved as solutions.
Our compliance, working toward a shared goal, serves to enhance the health care system; that being so, students undecided about a career path might consider nursing, medicine or social work. Our province is crying out for nurses and support workers to go into the homes of those who can’t easily come out to BE in the community. Could that be you?
Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese and Mr. Malcolm, a boisterous Havanese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca
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