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As a practising physician, John Dornan used to drive from Saint John to the Charlotte Country Hospital in St. Stephen for endocrinology clinics, and through those visits he witnessed the growth of the collaborative care team they were putting together.
As health minister, Dornan was back at the hospital in St. Stephen on Tuesday with Premier Susan Holt to announce the province will spend $3.6 million to expand collaborative health services in St. Stephen and set up a standalone clinic in the community. The goal is to provide more people with primary-care services.
“This means more people in St. Stephen will be able to get the care they need at the right place, at the right time, in their own community,” Dornan said.
“I know this team has already been working hard, growing its staff, connecting more people with primary care. They have outgrown the capacity of the clinic in this hospital. “
He said that since February, the clinic has added seven health-care professionals to its services and taken on 310 patients patients who did not have doctors.
The province said it would establish and support at least 10 collaborative care teams across New Brunswick this year. St. Stephen is the ninth announced so far.
There is an existing clinic on the third floor of the hospital, the Charlotte County Collaborative Wellness Centre, and Holt said the goal is to grow and create a standalone clinic.
“They pulled together people and leadership to build a collaborative care team and to use the space they had to start serving patients and to start taking patients off the wait list,” Holt said.
“But we want to go further and we want to make sure that this community has that dedicated space.”
Various players, including the clinic and Horizon Health, weren’t ready to announce the location for the new clinic because they were still finalizing the lease.
The existing team has one physician, three nurse practitioners, two registered nurses, two licensed practical nurses, one respiratory therapist and one social worker.
The centre also has an access clinic, in collaboration with local physicians, to serve patients with non-urgent medical needs, which has supported more than 2,000 people since it launched.
Dornan acknowledged that the government isn’t pioneering this form of care, which he said is good for patients and health-care providers. The province is looking to build new teams where they don’t exist and strengthen those already in place.
“Collaborative care delivers stronger health care for patients and enhanced support for providers,” Dornan said. “This expanded team of primary care and allied health professionals in St. Stephen is a clear example of how we are strengthening our health system with team-based care.”
Primary care is one of six priority areas outlined in the province’s five-year health plan released last month.
The government has committed to establishing and supporting at least 30 local collaborative care teams across the province over four years.
“I keep a binder of all the groups of people that are looking at forming collaborative care teams and everyone is in different stages of development like this one is here,” Dornan said.
A new collaborative care clinic will be part of an expansion of the Charlotte County Collaborative Wellness Centre. It is the ninth announced this year. The government has committed to establishing 10 by the end 2025.
He said further developing this model is great for the recruitment and retention of health-care workers.
“No one likes to [work] in a solo practice … if you can knock next door and talk to a nurse practitioner or physician or pharmacist or social worker, it’s a much happier place to come to everyday,” he said.
Kathy Bockus, the Progressive Conservative MLA for the area, welcomed the announcement of the money for the new clinic.
A few years ago, Bockus helped establish a local recruitment committee to attract more doctors and they were all looking for opportunities to collaborate with other health-care workers. They don’t want solo practices with “3,000 or 4,000 patients,” which aren’t ideal for patients either, she said.
“Doctors today want to work in a collaborative atmosphere,” Bockus said. “It works better because it doesn’t matter who your doctor is. If you go to that clinic, you’re a member of that clinic. Your charts are there. So you might not see the same doctor, but your information is there.”
So far this year, the province has announced support for collaborative care teams in Campbellton, Moncton, Miramichi, Carleton North, Tantramar, Île-de-Lamèque, Fredericton, Edmundston and St. Stephen, with at least one more expected by the end of December.
