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For too long our healthcare system has been broken with no plan to fix it. Until we see bold change, you’ll keep getting the busy signal at the walk-in clinic, nurses and doctors will leave our province for one that appreciates them, and our waitlists will continue to grow. 

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For over 180,000 New Brunswickers, being able to see a doctor is nearly impossible. A patchwork of clinics and overbooked family physicians leaves people sitting in overcrowded and understaffed emergency rooms while those caring for us work to the point of burnout. To make our healthcare system more nimble, we need to equip it with the right tools. Relying on paper records, fax machines, and mailed appointments creates significant risks in tracking crucial health information. 

A Holt Government will:

  • Establish and support 30 community care clinics that offer local, collaborative care from a variety of health professionals in one place when you need it.  
    • Provide dedicated non-clinical staff and administrative support to these clinics to ensure healthcare providers are focused on patients, not paperwork. 
  • Use hospitals to their fullest potential by increasing the time that operating rooms are open. 
  • Invest in modern technology, including centralized waitlists and standardized digital records management systems, to facilitate the seamless and secure exchange of patient information among healthcare providers, regions, the regional health authorities, and community care clinics.

Our healthcare system only stands because of the tireless work of our healthcare professionals. They have spent years being overwhelmed by long hours and high patient loads. The Higgs Conservatives have failed to take care of those who care for us.

A Holt Government will:

  • Create a multi-pronged plan developed for all healthcare professionals to improve working conditions, prioritize support for their wellness, and increase retention.  
  • Immediately deliver retention payments to show our respect for ​​​nurses ​and examine other tools that aid retention and recruitment.
  • Work with communities and experts to ensure local realities are respected and factored into any plan to retain and recruit healthcare professionals.
  • Improve the compensation model for doctors and primary care providers, including fair pay for those who perform after-hours care. 
  • Work with Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick and Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick to create more training and residency seats. 
  • Implement innovative approaches to recruit healthcare professionals, including nurses and doctors. 
  • Leverage existing healthcare knowledge by working with regulators to improve foreign credential recognition for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals already in our province and looking to call New Brunswick home. 
  • Review and expand healthcare professionals’ scope of practice to optimize their roles.

Seniors are feeling forgotten. While over 1,100 people wait for a long-term care bed, 535 seniors are waiting in a hospital. Seniors and their families deserve to have options and the ability to make decisions about their care with dignity, but the lack of long-term care resources is placing stress on them and our hospitals.

A Holt Government will:

  • Expand the Nursing Homes Without Walls model and ensure that those who want to stay at home can do so for as long as possible.  
  • Ensure all existing nursing home beds are accessible by filling staffing gaps by investing in wages for personal support workers and resident attendants ultimately resulting in increased hours of care.
  • Review and update the process and standards for home care allocation and invest in increased wages for homecare workers. 
  • Increase comfort and clothing allowance for seniors from $150 to $200.
  • Establish sector standards and transparent reporting practices with a robust system for complaints that leads to quick responses and better overall delivery to ensure our seniors continue to receive excellent care. 
  • Implement a caregiver benefit for unpaid and informal caregivers of aging family members, giving caregivers $250 a month to recognize their contribution.
  • Work with communities to develop and implement a strategy that better supports those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
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Access to primary healthcare is a challenge across the province, and that is especially true for historically underserved groups. Everyone deserves access to the healthcare they need. 

A Holt Government will:

  • Provide the RSV vaccine for free for seniors and vulnerable people. 
  • Increase access to fertility treatments by funding one round of IVF, which is in line with jurisdictions across Canada.  
  • Expand midwifery services and allocating funding to support training and education.
  • Make contraception free. 
  • Implement at-home pap tests for cervical cancer screening. 
  • Ensure New Brunswickers can better access abortion services by amending regulation 84–20. 
  • Ensure billing process aligns with best practices to provide members of the LGBTQI2S+ community with quality health and mental health care—including longer appointment times and gender-affirming care. 
  • Invite First Nations leaders to create a bilateral forum and ongoing process with the goal of achieving culturally safe and equitable healthcare for Indigenous people in New Brunswick. 
  • Support, collaborate, and engage with First Nations healthcare leaders in achieving their Health Transformation design and implementation process.

Caring for your mental health can be a challenge, and our current system makes it feel intimidating, confusing, and even hopeless. People experiencing mental health crises deserve access to care that doesn’t start and end with a 15-hour wait in the emergency room. 

A Holt Government will:

  • Ensure mental health professionals are located in as many community care clinics as possible to ensure mental health is being treated as primary care and reduce the frequency of acute mental health challenges. 
  • Increase residency seats for psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, and develop a retention and training plan for psychologists, counsellors, and other mental health professionals, specifically within schools.
  • Invest in community-based case management approaches for front-line service providers currently providing mental health support.  
  • Create a Mental Health Advocate position to ensure New Brunswickers struggling with mental health and navigating the system have a champion.
  • Expand mental health court access to ensure the promotion of alternative pathways for justice. 
  • Work in partnership with First Nations to co-create and implement mental health and addiction programs that meet culturally safe First Nation service and practice standards of care. 
  • Ensure billing practices align with best practices to provide members of the LGBTQI2S+ community with quality health and mental health care—including longer appointment times and gender-affirming care. 
  • Invest in treatment beds throughout the province, ensure there is a bed for anyone who wants it when they want it, and ensure that there is an optional continuum of care for those exiting treatment.