Nurse practitioners fear for patients amid clinic closures, redeployment to COVID test sites

A decision to temporarily close nurse practitioner clinics in the Saint John area and redeploy staff to COVID testing sites has sparked concern for the patients who will be left without primary care for the next two weeks.

Staff at several clinics were told Thursday that their clinics would be closed starting today and that staff will instead report to work at COVID vaccination and assessment centres, the president of Nurse Practitioners of New Brunswick says.

Thousands of patients and at least five clinics – including the Saint John Uptown Health Centre, North End Wellness Centre, Market Place Wellness Centre, H.O.P.E. Wellness Centre and the Saint John Sexual Health Centre – are affected by the temporary closures, Raelyn Lagacé said in an interview Sunday.

"This means that these patients no longer have access to their primary care provider for the next two weeks. So their only access to care will be walk-ins and ERs," Lagacé said. 

CBC has reached out to Horizon Health Network for comment on the increased need for staff at COVID vaccination centres and on the clinic closures, which are expected to be publicly announced Monday.

In the meantime, Lagacé said she is hearing from many upset nurse practitioners at the affected clinics.

"They're worried about their patients," she said. "You're looking at thousands of patients without access to care now ... a lot of vulnerable patients, a lot of sick patients. A lot of things are going to go unanswered for the next two weeks."

Lagacé stressed that the nurse practitioners understand the challenge facing the province in the weeks ahead, with rising COVID case numbers and predicted surges of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

It's not a matter of not wanting to help out, she said.

But with health-care staffing resources already stretched thin, they wonder if there might be better ways to manage the problem.

Lagacé held up Nova Scotia as an example, where she said volunteers are heavily leaned on to assist at COVID assessment centres. 

"I know we do that here, but to what extent?" she said.

Lagacé said she isn't sure whether that was already discussed and ruled out, noting there was no consultation with the clinics or with Nurse Practitioners of New Brunswick.

"Horizon is going to do whatever they deem necessary," she said, but consultation "would have been greatly appreciated."