Susan Holt is leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party. Image: Submitted

The leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party has released a detailed document with suggestions the province can use to address the overwhelmed health care system.

Susan Holt said during a news conference Thursday that the system is in crisis, and shared ideas to address health care issues.

Holt divided the suggestions into six sections. The first would be for the province to introduce emergency measures, such as establishing multi-disciplinary team care.

“That looks like clinics that are open longer than maybe a typical family practice, but we need people working in teams so that if a doctor or a nurse leaves or is off sick then there’s a team there to support them, and that patient doesn’t find themselves at the ER.”

“Our goal is to reduce the pressure on the ER system because it isn’t able to serve everyone who needs it today,” continued Holt.

The second section is to retain health care professionals with respect.

“We believe we need to reward nurses right away as well as those health care professionals. There are incentives that can be put in place. There remain people who are looking for full-time permanent workers who are casual in the system, and we encourage the government to respect those people and provide them with full-time work with benefits,” mentioned Holt.

The third idea the Liberal party is suggesting is for the government to send a strong message to the province’s population.

“We encourage the premier and his team to be out on campuses around the province, delivering by hand guaranteed offers of employment to everybody registered in a nursing program, paramedic program, family medicine program,” mentioned Holt

“So that we indicate to New Brunswickers that this is a profession that’s valued and that we will support their education to address the fundamental staffing shortages.”

The fourth section on the list would be for the government to kickstart a training plan.

“We need to make it accessible to undertake health care education. We need to be providing tuition guarantees and reimbursements, cost of living allowances,” said Holt.

Holt also brought up there must be better and faster ways to allow well-trained international colleagues to come work here.

As well as increase the number of seats in the nursing programs and the number of medical residency positions in New Brunswick.

The fifth suggestion is what the Liberal party describes as a “call for back up.”

Holt mentioned this could be developing partnerships between the province and municipalities.

“This could be a program, or a package of funds available from municipalities and communities to apply to with their ideas and projects that would support the recruitment of specialists, nurses, and health care professionals into their communities.”

Finally, the sixth suggestion would be for the government and the health networks to establish an office for health staff recruitment and retention.

Holt suggested that the Department of Health should have lead representatives from the department, as well as the Horizon and Vitalité health networks.

Holt added the office should be transparent, publishing quarterly, data-driven report cards outlining how many positions are vacant, how many candidates were sourced for each vacancy, how many candidates are advancing through the pipeline, and recruitment suggestions they received from the staff.

You can view the document by clicking here.