New Brunswick Medical Society offers health system solutions
New Brunswick Medical Society offers health system solutions
Health Care In New Brunswick: Physicians’ Vision for Success includes 57 recommendations to improve health system
Aug. 25, 2021
FREDERICTON — The New Brunswick Medical Society (NBMS) has submitted 57 recommendations to the provincial government that call for significant changes to improve the health system and patient care in the province. Published as Health Care In New Brunswick: Physicians’ Vision for Success, the recommendations were developed through engagement with more than 500 New Brunswick physicians. Recurring themes in the NBMS report include reducing poverty for the most vulnerable New Brunswickers, realigning limited resources and leveraging technology in a strained health system, and investing in the people delivering health care.
The NBMS recommendations were prepared in response to the provincial government’s Striving for Dependable Public Health Care: A discussion paper on the future of health care in New Brunswick, issued in January 2021. The NBMS submitted its response to government in April, recommending improvements to population health, primary health care, wait times, mental health and addictions, seniors care, health human resources, and 2SLGBTQ+ care.
“We were strongly encouraged by the objectives outlined in the provincial government’s discussion paper,” says Dr. Jeff Steeves, President of the NBMS. “Their objectives lined up well with the challenges physicians see every day. Our goal with Health Care In New Brunswick: Physicians’ Vision for Success was to capture the physician experience and provide government with strong, evidence-based solutions to improve the health system for the benefit of all New Brunswickers. The NBMS is eager to work with government on its new five-year health plan.”
The NBMS’s recommendations were developed following a survey that asked physicians to prioritize the challenges impacting patients and health-care professionals and to provide input on how to improve the health system in a meaningful way. One quarter of physicians in the province — 541 NBMS members — responded to the survey between Dec. 28, 2020 and Jan. 15, 2021. In addition, 197 physicians participated in a virtual meeting with Health Minister Dorothy Shephard in February 2021; comments from that meeting also informed the NBMS’s response.
To provide comprehensive recommendations to government, data and best practices were compiled from across the country and world.
“The NBMS Board, our Health Policy & Promotion Committee, many physicians, and staff put in hundreds of hours to prepare our submission,” says Dr. Steeves. “We are eager to work with government, the regional health authorities, and other stakeholders to improve the health system for the benefit of all New Brunswickers.”
About the New Brunswick Medical Society
Founded in 1867, the New Brunswick Medical Society (NBMS) is the professional association representing all physicians in New Brunswick. The NBMS has a two-part mission: to represent and service all practising and future physicians in the province, and to advocate for the health of New Brunswickers.
Media Contact
Eric Lewis, Communications Manager
media@nbms.nb.ca
506-866-1393