Liberals promise 30 collaborative health-care clinics before 2028

Liberal Leader Susan Holt is promising to open "at least" 30 collaborative health-care clinics in her first three years of power in order to cut wait times for primary care.

Holt said the commitment — the party's first major promise ahead of the fall election campaign — would cost $115.2 million over four years.

"Your health care is our number 1 priority," she said. "We will cut your wait time for care."

Holt said if she's elected, the first four clinics, in Fredericton, St. Stephen, Sussex and Campbellton, would open in 2025, and the rest would be operating before 2028.

The first four locations are in areas that were promised "integrated community care" facilities in the Higgs government's 2022 throne speech. The other sites were based on data from the arm's-length New Brunswick Health Council, she said.

The centres would bring together doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, psychologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists and others "to provide a health-care home for patients," the Liberals said.

Holt said that some of the 30 new clinics would be managed by the regional health authorities, some would be set up by groups of clinicians and still others might be through partnerships with municipalities.

Holt was joined by 16 Liberal candidates for her announcement in Fredericton, where the lack of access to primary care is acute.

According to the council, 79 per cent of New Brunswickers have access to primary care, down from 93 per cent in 2017.

Holt invited New Brunswickers to measure the success of her plan based on those numbers, saying she was aiming to increase that percentage above 80 per cent and was "shooting" to get it higher than 90 per cent.

She also said reducing the 180,000 people on the wait list for a doctor would be another measure.

"Our government is prepared to be held accountable to these commitments," she said.

The Liberal leader said the $115.2 million cost included capital costs for clinic spaces and technology, and the hiring of non-clinical administrative staff for each centre.

Taking the paperwork burden off doctors and nurse practitioners would free up more of their time to see patients and would make it more attractive to recruit more professionals, she said.