Sarah Ecker, a registered nurse in Fredericton, listens to Premier Blaine Higgs’ press conference on Friday. She had mixed feelings, but as things went on she became increasingly frustrated.
After a death in a New Brunswick emergency room, Higgs announced that he has dissolved the boards of Vitalité Health Network and Horizon Health Network, the health minister will swap positions with the minister of social development, and the executive director of Horizon Health has been fired.
Ecker was happy to see the removal of Dorothy Shepherd as health minister, but was surprised to hear that Dr John Dornan, Horizon’s chief executive, had been sacked.
Dorothy Shepard, the former health minister of New Brunswick, was removed and is now the minister of social development. (Shane Magee/CBC)
Higgs bypassed any kind of accountability, Ecker said. She said there is a staffing crisis in New Brunswick and the understaffing problem will not be solved by shuffling management.
“[Higgs] mentioned that people take their vital signs in the emergency room while they’re waiting, yes, that’s a great intervention to do, but if you have four nurses working in the emergency room and people come in with a major emergency, like something should to give,” she said.
“There are so many people. You can only do so much.”
She said adding new policies and procedures will only add more stress to the front line.
Nurses’ voices are not being heard, Ecker said. She hopes that frontline staff will be given the opportunity to share their views and that the government recognizes the need for more staff.
“I really think they need to work on morale,” Ecker said. “It’s like one of those cyclical issues where you need more staff to boost morale, but you need better morale to boost more staff.”
COVID-19 exposes systemic flaws
Higgs said during the news conference that he was “appalled” by the death in the emergency room. Ecker said this is not a new problem and there is some responsibility because this situation made the news.
Ecker said the health care system is on “thin ice.”
“Covid just shined a flashlight on a problem that was in the dark, and now it’s just bringing all these cracks out into the open,” she said. “This could be the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Ecker said Horizon staff received a notice earlier in the week asking staff to wear masks in public and lead by example. She believes Dornan saw that having a healthy staff would have an immediate impact for the good of the health care system.
Dissolving boards
Ecker called the dissolution of health authority boards a “unilateral power grab.”
She said she thinks any voice that represents a larger group of people is gone.
Norma McGraw, a former Vitalité Health Network board member, said she wasn’t too surprised by the decision.
Norma McGraw, a former Vitalité Health Network board member, said she wasn’t too surprised by the decision to leave the boards. (CBC)
“Something was expected [would] so did the Higgs [would] ultimately to respond to that pressure coming at him to improve the health care system,” she said.
She said she didn’t hear about the decision to dissolve the boards until the announcement had already been made.
Johanne Liz Landry, spokesperson for Vitalité Health Network, confirmed in email Friday that the health network has not received any correspondence regarding the removal of its board.
McGraw said she would like to know what the board did that did not meet the premier’s standard.
She said Vitalité should have self-management of its health network. She said eliminating the board to replace it with one appointed trustee would reduce the influence the community has over Vitalité Health Network.
But she said she hopes the receiver appointed will be able to make a difference.
“Everyone wants the system to improve, and if that’s what it takes to get the result, I wish Mr. Higgs the best,” McGraw said.
What next?
Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, said she was called to a brief meeting at 2:15 p.m. Friday where she learned of the announcement.
She was surprised that the health authority’s boards would be put into receivership and was disappointed by Dornan’s removal.
Dr. John Dornan, former president and CEO of Horizon Health Network, has been fired. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
“I felt like he really understood the issues on the front line and the issues that nurses were raising,” she said.
But she said systemic changes need to happen so frontline workers feel supported.
“We were in short supply before the pandemic and then, you know, two and a half years, almost three years into this pandemic, the staff, the retired nurses, the health care providers, you know, all of our allied health workers, they’re exhausted.”
She said the decisions announced Friday are a start. But she plans to contact new Health Secretary Bruce Fitch, the prime minister and others to figure out where to go next.
Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, said systemic changes are needed so frontline staff feel heard and supported. (Ed Hunter)
The New Brunswick Medical Society released a statement yesterday supporting the change in government leadership. The statement said the public looks forward to meeting with the Minister of Health to discuss how the government will address the priorities outlined in the provincial health plan.
The statement also thanked Dornan for his service as Horizon’s CEO, saying “he has done an admirable job leading Horizon under incredibly challenging circumstances.”
Ecker said it appears that the Higgs is not looking for the root cause.
“It’s not going to be fixed just by shuffling the deck. We really need targeted, intentional, meaningful change, not just more red tape,” she said.
“I know [Higgs] yesterday he talked a lot about removing barriers and red tape. But I feel like the Emperor just has a new pair of clothes.”
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