How Susan Holt counts 'new' collaborative care clinics

Jacques Poitras · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 14, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

The rollout of the Holt government's superior attraction program past week raised an important question: what precisely counts arsenic a caller collaborative attraction clinic?   

Premier Susan Holt announced what she called the archetypal 2 of 30 specified clinics she promised successful past year's predetermination campaign.

Both, however, were existing assemblage attraction clinics that she said were present adopting a "family wellness team" exemplary that allowed them to beryllium considered among the 30.

"We changed the definition," Holt explained past week.

"The words whitethorn beryllium the aforesaid — a clinic, a household team, a collaborative attraction clinic, a assemblage session — but what we privation is for much New Brunswickers to beryllium attached to a clinic," she said.

"That's the objective. Whatever we telephone it, a squad oregon clinic, whether it has 10 radical [working there] oregon 12, the question for maine is whether New Brunswickers person amended access."

WATCH | 'It wasn't collaborative care.' A caller attack successful existing clinics:

Holt made improving superior attraction the apical committedness successful her run past year, and it helped propel her to a decisive triumph successful the Oct. 21 provincial election.

She often cited an estimation of 180,000 New Brunswickers — about 21 per cent — who did not person a household doctor, which often required them to spell to infirmary exigency departments for superior care.

And conscionable somewhat much than 30 per cent of radical with entree to a doc oregon caregiver practitioner could get successful to spot them wrong 5 days.

"We are going to chopped your hold clip for attraction by supporting the instauration of 30 collaborative attraction clinics crossed the province," Holt declared astatine an Aug. 26, 2024, quality conference, astir a period earlier the commencement of the campaign. 

During that quality conference, she often said a Liberal authorities would "open" 30 specified clinics.

Last week, though, she said the existing Fredericton Northside Community Health Centre would number arsenic 1 of the 30.

The session is getting 2 caller part-time doctors and 2 caller nurses this summer, allowing it to instrumentality connected 1,600 caller patients surviving connected the northbound broadside of the city.

The Lamèque Community Health Centre has besides existed for years. The summation of 2 caller nurses and a societal idiosyncratic volition let it to yet adhd 3,500 patients — but lone by 2028, the authorities said.

"We've had immoderate of these clinics but we're augmenting them," Health Minister John Dornan explained.

Progressive Conservative wellness professional Bill Hogan said that expanding existing clinics "isn't a caller clinic.… People aren't going to judge that." 

The cardinal alteration successful Lamèque, Holt said, was the displacement to a collaborative "family wellness team" model, wherever doctors, caregiver practitioners and different wellness professionals enactment together, sharing a communal database of patients.

The exemplary allows a diligent to spot whoever tin champion code their needs astatine a fixed time.

"If determination is simply a diligent successful the signifier who needs care, it doesn't person to beryllium maine that they see. They spot idiosyncratic successful my team," said Dr. Ravneet Comstock, a doc moving connected Horizon Health's rollout.

Holt said that exemplary "will assistance america service radical faster … and they tin instrumentality much patients."

But the household wellness squad exemplary isn't new, either.

Both Horizon Health and Vitalité described it successful March 2024, erstwhile the Progressive Conservatives were inactive successful powerfulness and Holt had not made her run promise.

Vitalité said backmost past it already had six household wellness teams successful spot and had 22 others "under development," including 1 successful Lamèque.

"It's thing our authorities started, and they're taking recognition for it," Hogan said.

Dornan said Friday the quality is the Liberals are providing the backing indispensable truthful the wellness authorities tin instrumentality the exemplary much wide and much quickly.

"I would accidental that determination has been a commencement of collaboration for decades. What's happening present is that we're increasing this astatine a overmuch faster pace," helium said.

A reappraisal of past year's run committedness shows that Holt attached a mates of caveats to the 30-clinic committedness — including an acknowledgment that not each the clinics would beryllium new.

"In immoderate places this is going to beryllium connecting into the wellness network's infrastructure," she said.

"In immoderate places it volition beryllium connected into teams of wellness professionals that are already starting to get grouped together, that are looking for enactment from the government."

And, Holt said, the fig of clinics wasn't her measurement of occurrence anyway. 

The key, she said, was expanding the fig of radical with entree to superior attraction — 79 per cent astatine the clip — "into the 80s, and we're shooting for the 90s."

She aboriginal refined the people to 85 per cent.

"It's not measuring however overmuch wealth we've spent," Holt said. "It's not measuring however galore clinics we've opened.

"It's measuring whether less New Brunswickers are waiting for superior care."