Premier Blaine Higgs ousted his health minister Friday and fired the CEO of one of New Brunswick’s two health networks after worsening news on the health care front, including a “traumatic” death in an emergency room.
Bruce Fitch is now health secretary, replacing Dorothy Shepherd, who is moving from health to social development, Higgs announced at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
Higgs also announced that Horizon Health Network CEO John Dornan has been fired from his position and replaced on an interim basis by Margaret Melanson, the network’s vice president of clinical services.
In addition, Higgs said he has removed the boards of the Horizon and Vitalité health networks and replaced them with a trustee for each.
WATCH | ‘It starts at the top:’ Higgs describes changes in health care leadership
Higgs says he was “horrified” to hear of a death in the emergency room waiting room
The prime minister announced on Friday that he was firing Horizon’s chief executive and replacing the health minister.
“We have a plan,” Higgs said. “It must be implemented. The situation we find ourselves in today is the result of many, many years of successive governments refusing to deal with emergencies.”
The reshuffle of New Brunswick health care management comes after a patient died in the emergency room waiting room at Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital early Tuesday morning while waiting for help.
Witness John Staples said the man, an adult, waited alone in a wheelchair in visible discomfort for hours when he appeared to have fallen asleep. It was only during a routine check on people in the waiting room that a hospital employee realized the man had stopped breathing, he said.
An inquest into the death has been ordered
Higgs said he was “horrified” when he heard a patient had died while waiting to be seen in an emergency room.
He said he has asked Horizon Health Network to conduct an investigation into what happened and that if he is not satisfied with the results, he will request an outside review.
John Staples said seeing a patient die in the waiting room of Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital’s emergency room, on the verge of receiving care, was a “harsh and grim realization” that New Brunswick’s health care system is “so sadly broken “. (Joe McDonald/CBC)
“I have no doubt that every New Brunswicker is saddened and concerned by this story. We all want to know that if we go to the hospital, we will get the help we need.”
Answering questions from reporters, Higgs said he hoped the investigation would reveal whether any standards of care at the hospital were not met when the patient died in the waiting room.
However, he was quick to note that he doesn’t believe the fault lies with frontline health workers.
“I don’t believe it has anything to do with — and I’m just voicing an opinion here — anything to do with the nurses on shift or the people on shift.
“I believe it’s a matter of governance. I believe there is no coordination of activity and that is what I am trying to bring here. If we don’t get better management results in our hospitals, we won’t get better health care.”
Change of ministers
Higgs praised Shepherd’s work during the pandemic and for her role in introducing a new health care plan for the province.
However, he said, Fitch will take a “fresh look” at how the department measures performance and where health care deficiencies lie.
Dorothy Shepherd was moved from Health Secretary to Social Development Minister, while Bruce Fitch was moved from Social Development to the Health Secretary role. (CBC)
“In the case of Bruce joining, sometimes a change is, some might say, better than a break,” Higgs said.
“Bruce is an experienced government guy … he’s going to work with people everywhere, as Dorothy was, but bringing a fresh perspective on, well, how do we measure effectiveness? How do we achieve results? Where have we not delivered and fulfilled our commitments and what are the main reasons for this?”
Removal of health authority advice
In place of the boards of directors of the two health authorities, Higgs said his government had appointed trustees Suzanne Johnston and Gerald Richard to Horizon and Vitalité respectively.
“We are fortunate to have two outstanding and experienced individuals coming out of retirement to help us through these challenging times.
The governing boards of health networks include members elected by the public and members appointed by the government.
Higgs said the two councils had been canceled to speed up changes at the two health authorities.
“We’re taking a crisis management approach here to allow decisions to be made, to allow direct consultation with the appropriate people and get on with it.”
“So we’re removing this situation of bureaucratic gridlock … and it’s not meant to be permanent, but it’s meant to get results.” And right now, I need to see results, and I want to remove the barriers and obstacles for our healthcare professionals to achieve them.”
Higgs said he didn’t have a timeline for when he expects results from the two trustees, and it’s unclear what their goals are.
“There will be some goals that we will set there that we want to achieve first. So I can’t put a timeline on that, but I want to be clear about what the results should be.”
“A huge step backwards,” says Horizon’s ousted chairman
Higgs’ announcement was met with swift criticism from Jeff McAloon, Horizon’s board chairman until Friday.
“I am disappointed and disheartened by Prime Minister Higgs’ unilateral decision to remove Dr. John Dornan as CEO of Horizon Health Network,” McAloon said in an emailed statement.
“I am confident in Dr. Dornan’s experience and ability to affect real and positive change in the province’s health care system.”
During the press conference, Higgs sidestepped the question of what Dornan failed to do in his role as CEO.
“I think what I’m demonstrating here is the need to get a foundation in terms of frontline workers in the case of Margaret Melanson and her role in clinical services and you know how we can target that in hospitals,” he said.
“I think every hospital should have a clinical services manager who is really that gatekeeper of who’s coming in? Who’s coming out? What time is it? How quickly do we manage this? And we have to get down to earth with it.
Dr. John Dornan has been fired as CEO of Horizon Health Network after being officially appointed to the position just four months ago. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
McAlone characterized the Higgs move as centralizing control of health care.
“For me and the part-elected local council I used to lead, today’s announcement is a big step backwards,” he said.
“It represents a loss of community ownership and engagement and clinical, leadership expertise.
“Centralizing control in the prime minister’s office is not the solution. Politics is what got us here, not the solution.”
McAlone said he had not heard from Higgs and only learned of his decision moments before the news conference began.
“I join everyone in New Brunswick in their feelings of shock and want nothing more than to see our system stabilized.”
Johanne Lise Landry, a spokeswoman for Vitalité Health Network, said in an email that the health network has not received any correspondence regarding the removal of its board.
There was a reaction from the medical community itself.
“Dr. John Dornan’s firing has to rank as one of the most thoughtless, senseless, and thoughtless decisions I’ve ever heard,” cardiologist Dr. Robert Teskey tweeted.
Reaction of the opposition
Interim Liberal leader Roger Melanson wondered why Higgs was taking so long to do something about the problems in the health care system.
He said the premier has been in office for four years and needs to explain to New Brunswickers what his new plan is and why he thinks it will work.
But Melanson is concerned that attracting new doctors will not be high on the agenda for the province.
“We need health care workers to be able to provide these services, and they still haven’t even mentioned that today at this press conference,” Melanson said.
Green Party health critic Megan Mitton said successive Liberal and PC governments have contributed to the state of the province’s health system.
She is concerned about the abandonment of partially elected health boards, a move she says is antithetical to democracy.
“We should not be seeing more centralization of our health care system,” Mitton said. “We need to go the other way and have more decision-making, power and resources at the local level.”
Melanson said he would like to see the Legislature called in to address the issue, something Mitton said he would support.
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