New Brunswick is undergoing a rather alarming shortage of family physicians. According to their 2024 annual report, 23% of residents lacked a primary care provider—up 2% from the prior year. That’s why Premier Susan Holt and her new Liberal government are moving fast. In doing so, they are meeting the immediate challenge of making healthcare more accessible to the people of their province.
The New Brunswick Health Council’s public opinion survey shows an alarming trend. Approximately 180,000 people in the province are without a family doctor today. Disadvantaged communities experience heavy burdens from this lack of access. This affects poor people, Acadian communities, Indigenous peoples, the disabled and recent migrants. Urgent action is all the more crucial. Without the intervention of readily available primary care, preventable diseases would require amputations and other invasive care and in some cases people would die.
Premier Holt now under fire from the opposition Liberal and Green parties. They maintain that her government has failed to produce any sort of detailed plan to address the doctor shortage. In retort, Holt has made her passion for expanding access to healthcare evident. Leading up to her election, she committed to opening 30 of these collaborative care clinics throughout the province. Her mission was to increase access to and capacity of primary care.
The urgency to act against this shortage cannot be stated enough. … Healthcare professionals in New Brunswick have major other factors that further worsen the situation. We should consider that in a shocking, but unsurprising, 2024 report by the Montreal Economic Institute, they found that our province has the highest rate of nurses leaving their profession before the age of 35. Eighty of these nurses leave, often because of a toxic work environment. These compounding challenges are not only a barrier to recruitment, but retention of the primary healthcare providers that are essential for adapting to meet patient demands.
The province’s smartest doctor shop offices weave through 4,000 anticipated visits a year with relative ease. This underscores the increasing requirement for enhanced efficiency and coordination across practices to deliver the needed care. Beyond that, the Holt government is counting on getting more of those team models into practice to help address the doctor shortage.
Alex Gagne is a Moncton-born, Quebec-transplanted, healthcare activist who has long championed immediate, tangible reforms. He had previously campaigned as the NDP candidate for Beausejour, Federal nomination, for the next federal election. He underscores the severity of the crisis:
“When we talk about health care, it’s often easy to forget what it means to have a health care shortage. It means New Brunswickers will die.” – Alex Gagne
Pressure has not let up on Premier Holt and her administration. It’s important for the Liberal MLAs to be specific about how they plan to address the ebbing tide of the current doctor shortage. Many residents are left wondering how their government plans to ensure that all New Brunswickers have access to necessary healthcare services.
“If left untreated, it becomes lethal, and once it reaches a severe level, it is proven financially far more costly to provide emergency care, rather than the necessary preventative care.” – Alex Gagne
As pressure mounts on Premier Holt and her administration, it remains crucial for the Liberal MLAs to articulate their strategy for resolving the doctor shortage effectively. Many residents are left wondering how their government plans to ensure that all New Brunswickers have access to necessary healthcare services.
