The New Brunswick government has released its first report outlining initiatives and actions aimed at improving access to primary and acute care which will be included in the forthcoming Family Plan.
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Seven pillars were identified as priority areas which will be taken into account when creating the Family Plan.
Promoting wellness, support for mental health sufferers, healthy aging and support for seniors, advancing women’s equality, poverty reduction and support for those with disabilities remain key factors that government will engage stakeholders on.
With the stakeholder engagement process for the first pillar, improving access to primary and acute health care now concluded, the province has released details into what aspects they’re focusing on when the final report is created.
“We’re kind of laying the vision that we see as a government that will correspond to that pillar and to the feedback that we’ve received from stakeholders,” explained Health Minister Victor Boudreau. “There’s still more work to be done but this was just kind of to set the global vision, and now we’ll be coming out with some specific initiatives.”
Highlighted in the report are initiatives such as working with the New Brunswick Medical Society to implement a new approach to family medicine, develop an integrated and co-ordinated health-care service model for more consistent and appropriate care, and continue current work on collaborative action which will allow patients to receive the proper level of care, ideally in their own homes.
Anthony Knight, CEO for the New Brunswick Medical Society, applauds the government on their consultation process and believes the report helps to address issues on both sides of the doctor’s office.
“They’ve identified things like access to primary care, a better co-ordination of how specialists are organized,” Knight explained. “Those are important things to patients and they matter to doctors too because they often confront the frustration in our health-care system of a lack of co-ordination at times.”
Boudreau expects announcements stemming from the first report could be seen in the near future.
The engagement process remains ongoing for the remaining priority areas.