Horizon wants patients at 3 Fredericton-region hospitals fast-tracked for nursing homes

Horizon Health Network has asked Social Development Minister Jill Green to grant "critical state" status to three more of its hospitals, all in the Fredericton region, to fast-track their patients on the nursing home waitlist.

Horizon requested giving temporary priority for alternative care to patients waiting at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton, the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville, and Hotel-Dieu of St. Joseph in Perth-Andover, over other New Brunswickers for available nursing home beds, confirmed Greg Doiron, vice-president of clinical operations.

The province calls these people "ALC patients."

Horizon's request, made Jan. 8 under a new protocol used to address a lack of capacity in hospitals, remains under review, as of late Thursday, Doiron said.

"Where many of our hospitals are currently overcapacity, this would also allow us to free up more acute care beds for patients requiring admission and improve emergency department wait times," he said in an emailed statement.

Meanwhile, Green was expected to determine "next steps" Thursday for the two Saint John hospitals she granted "critical state" status to earlier this month. She was to re-evaluate giving priority patients waiting at the Saint John Regional Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital for a nursing home bed.

Department spokesperson Rebecca Howland did not provide any update by the end of the day.

What the possible next steps could include and what information Green was considering remain unclear. Howland has not answered CBC requests for information since Monday.

But nine patients from the Saint John Regional Hospital have been discharged to nursing homes so far under the new protocol, and none from St. Joseph's, Doiron said Wednesday.

He did not say whether the patients were admitted to their preferred nursing home but did note that "alternate level of care" patients — people who have been medically discharged but are waiting in hospital for placement in a nursing home or other long-term care setting — "spend a long time" waiting.

"When a space becomes available, Horizon works closely with the Department of Social Development, patients, and their families to ensure patients are safely and compassionately transitioned to an appropriate setting, where their needs for socialization, recreation, and other therapeutic services would be best met," Doiron said.

Normally, nursing home admission is done chronologically.

As of Jan. 1, 935 people were waiting for a nursing home placement across the province, 463 of them in hospitals, according to the department.

Green authorized giving priority to ALC patients at the Saint John Regional on Jan. 4 at Horizon's request because of the "exceptional circumstances" there, the department spokesperson told CBC on Jan. 12.