Greens Promise Decentralization Of Health Care

The leader of New Brunswick’s Green Party says he would restore autonomy to local hospitals and health centres if elected in September.

Speaking in Sackville on Thursday, David Coon said he would re-establish the role of hospital administrators to manage their local needs.

“There will be no more decisions handed down from on high in Fredericton by managers who have no direct connection to the hospital or the community health centre,” said Coon.

The Green Party would also set up community health boards to ensure local services reflect community needs and expectations.

Coon said the government should put the heart of New Brunswickers at every decision made, which he said did not happen when the Higgs government introduced controversial health-care reforms in February.

Part of those reforms would have seen emergency rooms in Sackville and five other communities throughout the province closed overnight.

“The management of our health-care system has become so overcentralized in New Brunswick and that, in some ways, is the heart of many of the challenges that health care faces in the way it’s not serving New Brunswickers in the way it should. It has lost touch with the needs and expectations of local communities and local people,” said Coon.

Decentralizing will provide better decision-making which reflects local realities and create a true sense of belonging for hospital staff, he said.

Even with a focus on community-based health care, Coon said there would still be a need for regional health authorities.

“Placing an emphasis on community-based health care in no way diminishes the role that regional health authorities play in ensuring the health-care system delivers those specialized services that must be presented centrally or regionally,” he said.

“No one expects to have heart surgery in the Sackville hospital. No one expects to have brain surgery in the Perth-Andover hospital. … That’s not what people are opposed to. They’re opposed to services being removed that provide them with the health services they need locally.”