New Brunswick’s premier says she is not surprised by a lack of beds at several regional hospitals in the province.
Horizon Health is dealing with overcrowding at several hospitals due to patients awaiting long-term care placements.
Patients at hospitals in Saint John, Fredericton, Miramichi and Waterville are being allowed to jump the queue to try to free up space.
Premier Susan Holt said we are facing a “perfect storm” caused by an aging population, a lack of long-term care beds and increased challenges in primary care.
“This isn’t a surprise, I think, to New Brunswickers or to our government,” Holt told reporters during a media availability on Thursday morning.
“We have seen over many years the challenges that hospitals have faced, where we have times of heavy emergency room activity, and yet hospitals that are full of people receiving alternate levels of care.”
More than 650 acute care beds throughout Horizon are taken up by people who have no medical reason to be in a hospital but cannot be discharged as they are waiting for a long-term care placement.
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President Margaret Melanson told reporters on Wednesday that more than half of those patients could be discharged today if there were long-term care beds available for them.
“Fundamentally, there is simply not enough long-term care capacity available across the Horizon geographic area,” she said.
The premier said her government is working to try and address the situation, such as improving home care services and negotiating a new agreement with nursing home unions to help address staffing.
Holt also cited the work being done to expand the Nursing Home Without Walls program, which allows long-term care homes to support older adults to age in place with access to essential services and support.
In addition, the premier said her government is working to transform primary care by connecting more New Brunswickers with family health teams to prevent them from showing up in emergency rooms in the first place.
“While our services are increasing and there’s more people receiving long-term care and more people receiving care at home, and more people receiving care through Nursing Home Without Walls and Extra-Mural programs, it hasn’t yet reached that demographic pressure point,” said Holt.
New Brunswick currently has 78 licensed nursing homes with 5,373 beds, with another 180 beds currently under construction. There are also 431 adult residential facilities offering care and services to about 7,600 residents.
