Opinion: Demanding essential change for health care in N.B.
Public would like to see signals of something of substance that would give reason for optimism
Author: Ken McGeorge • Health care reform
Published: Jan 29, 2026 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
Dr. Lise Babin, President of the New Brunswick Medical Society, expressed hope of improvements in the province’s health care in a commentary on December 31, 2025. She is entitled to be optimistic: as president of the very influential NB Medical Society, she and her association were very pleased negotiations with the province had come to a successful conclusion for physicians and nurses.
The new contract with physicians provides not only a respectable inflationary adjustment but a new approach to enable the collaborative care clinics to be funded appropriately.
These clinics are the centre-piece of the government strategy for primary care services. And an important piece it is! For several years now we have been hearing from more than 100,000 New Brunswickers who have not had the access to health care services called for in the Canada Health Act. Clinics recently established are helping with that as are the Care Link Clinics.
The conventional approach to the practice of family medicine served the population very well for generations. Family physicians operating either solo or in groups tended to accommodate after-hour care with shared on-call duties and many of the practices ensured they had time on the daily calendar to accept urgent patients.
So “back in the day” the pressure on emergency departments was nothing like it is today.
Twenty years ago, we began to see a creaking in the system. In the old days, when a family doctor would retire, he/she could “sell the practice for fair market value.” In executing such a transaction, the physician would have to secure a replacement physician who would not only take over the practice but responsibility for all the patients registered in that practice.
I used to hear of physicians with well over 2,000 patients on their list. We began to see arrangements in which multiple physicians were required to take over a practice along with many other variations on that theme.
Some physicians have had a lot of trouble in selling a practice apparently because in recent years all a new physician had to do is let it be known they are taking patients and their office would be filled in short order, apparently. The provincial waiting list for primary care has become a large and important development, as well.
One of the features of medical practice that has evolved rapidly is the interest of physicians in managing work/life balance. Suddenly, the day of the “workaholic” doctors seemed to disappear. And that is a good thing for the doctors and their patients. Being a parent, managing a full-time practice, taking the required shifts in the emergency department, in addition to all the other pressures on a physician’s time has led many physicians to develop practice patterns that are mercifully different from the workaholism of the past.
At the turn of this century there was growing interest in alternate payment plans for physicians and alternate compensation models. Ontario was one province that developed a variety of models that seemed to be of interest to physicians depending on where they were practicing.
New Brunswick was a bit slow to develop the collaborative care clinic model and the compensation model to support it. Our Minister of Health, Dr. John Dornan, recognized the need to make the clinics and compensation model a priority and he is giving that initiative much energy.
Having physicians and nurses who believe they are being recognized and compensated fairly is vital to excellence in health care. Recruit great professionals, support them in their practice, and compensate them fairly… three giant steps toward excellence.
But it doesn’t stop there. While the professionals can be content about the new contract and, hopefully, increasingly energized to develop the clinic model, there are many other elements of the health system that require the same priority and that, of course, is a challenge for the government. Some of the value of having wonderful professionals feeling fairly compensated and recognized is currently offset by huge issues in the organization of the system.
The nursing sector is large and still in need of much attention at many levels. Compensation is undoubtedly one but a careful analysis of real issues has revealed a lengthy list of issues that the government needs to not only be aware of but attentive to.
And there are so many other professional groups within the system whose services are essential and there is a minefield of issues to be attentive to. The health authorities, from what I have personally observed, seem to be doing a lot of things in that area.
But then the big issues: alternate level of care patients and emergency departments. I would like to feel Dr. Babin’s optimism as it relates to the ALC and emergency department issues…but I don’t!
The public would like to see some signals of something of substance that would give reason for that optimism. Having doctors and nurses happy is critical. And it is also critical that the other professional groups, some of which represent great recruitment and development challenges, feel equally respected and compensated.
But none of these are the sick people lying for days on a stretcher in the ambulance bay or in a corridor with the world passing by as you really need peace, quiet and skilled attention. Nor are they the ones that receive the telephone recorded message that “if this is an urgent situation, go to the emergency department.” That is the standard message on the phones of every physician’s office that I have had occasion to contact in the last decade.
Further, these are not the people who wait for 12 hours in the emergency department to see a physician or who wait anywhere from a year to five years to see the specialist whose skill potentially could relieve much pain and suffering.
The collaborative care clinic initiative is superb but it requires fast-tracking to blanket the province. The tens of thousands of patients who still lack access to effective primary care need to be convinced there is an end in sight. The people who speak to me about health care, and there are many, are no longer impressed with promises. And they deserve better; they have been paying for a service they are not getting.
The Legislature opens, according to the published legislative calendar, on April 17, 2026 with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts during the first week of March 2026. Let us hope there will be much more than promises, much more than the traditional government plan unveiled before that time.
The long-term care plan can and must be sufficiently specific as to show how and when the ALC population will be brought under some reasonable form of management. Lofty phrases such as “we will strive…” or “the new nursing home plan will…” or “legislation will be introduced in the fall session…” Just get it done!
If it isn’t obvious by now it should be! We are long past the description of urgent. What has been described by families, including my own, represents disaster and Third World conditions.
We can and must demand essential change.
Ken McGeorge, BS, DHA, CHE is a retired career health care CEO, part time consultant, and columnist with Brunswick News; he is the author of Health Care Reform in New Brunswick and may be reached at kenmcgeorge44@outlook.com or www.kenmcgeorge.com
