Collaborative care clinic in Tantramar promises to take all residents off waitlist within the year

Allyson McCormack · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 18, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Horizon Health is launching a caller superior attraction session astatine the Tantramar Primary Health Care Centre successful Sackville, and with the summation of much unit and space, it's expected to instrumentality each Tantramar residents disconnected a years-long waitlist by adjacent April. 

The session is defined arsenic a household wellness team, and includes a physician, nurses, administrative unit and a scope of different health-care professionals, including a dietitian, pharmacist, societal idiosyncratic and respiratory therapist.

Dr. Ravneet Comstock, Horizon Health Network's doc programme pb for household and assemblage medicine, said the exemplary is simply a displacement distant from a solo signifier wherever physicians and administrators are connected their own.

"You don't person to transportation the full value alone," said Comstock. 

"You person each these colleagues to tally things by … We're trying to truly make these pathways of collaboration wherever the diligent gets the champion bang for their visit, they spot the close idiosyncratic astatine the close time, and it volition amended some their entree to attraction and the prime of care."

The Tantramar session opened successful 2023 aft 3 wellness providers near wrong a three-month span, leaving 3,000 patients without a primary-care provider. 

Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black said that nonaccomplishment caused "a batch of heartache" successful the community, and added further strain to resources. Many radical were near seeking attraction astatine the infirmary — which closes astatine 4 p.m. — with fewer different options. 

"Considering that wellness attraction successful different parts of the province, and successful different provinces, is besides an issue, it means that idiosyncratic couldn't conscionable thrust to Moncton and spell get services from a aesculapian nonrecreational astatine the ER oregon successful Amherst, due to the fact that some of those places are besides inundated and short."

Black said helium knows of radical who person been waiting for a doc for astir a decennary — and galore much joined that waiting database pursuing the influx of radical during Covid. He said he's optimistic astir the caller exemplary of attraction for the community.

Dozens of caller patients added weekly

Richard Lemay, manager of superior wellness attraction for Zone 1, which includes the Tantramar region, said the session is present adding "at slightest 20 to 30 caller patients per week" from the diligent registry list. 

"We estimation … adjacent to 1,400 radical from the Tantramar country would inactive beryllium connected that list. So with the complaint that we're onboarding caller radical now, we consciousness assured that we should beryllium capable to onboard those patients wrong the adjacent year."

Premier Susan Holt has promised 30 caller collaborative health-care clinics crossed the state to tackle a superior attraction waitlist of astir 180,000 New Brunswickers. 

The Tantramar session is the 3rd wellness centre successful the state to beryllium deemed a household wellness team. Earlier this month, Horizon Health announced it was expanding Fredericton's northbound broadside session with the summation of 2 caller part-time doctors and 2 caller nurses. The wellness authorization said it volition beryllium capable to instrumentality connected 1,600 much patients utilizing this caller model. 

And the Lamèque Community Health Centre, which has besides existed for years, is becoming a household wellness squad with 2 caller nurses and a societal worker. The session volition yet adhd 3,500 patients implicit the adjacent fewer years. 

Comstock said some wellness authorities are reaching retired to physicians who are funny successful this exemplary of care.  

"So if we already person a radical of physicians that's moving together, however tin we spouse with them? How tin we make a household wellness squad for their community?"

She said the wellness authorities are moving with what they have, including existing infrastructure — and a batch of physician-owned buildings — so the wellness teams volition look antithetic successful each community.