Horizon seeks provincial funding for 17 family health teams

Article content

Horizon Health Network is seeking funding for 17 family health teams from a new Liberal government that has promised to expand primary care access within the next three years.

Article content

Communities in the Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton regions, as well as in northern New Brunswick, have been identified as potential sites for these 17 new interdisciplinary clinics, according to a presentation delivered at Thursday’s Horizon board of directors meeting.

Earlier this fall, Liberal Leader Susan Holt campaigned on a plan to create “at least” 30 new collaborative care clinics before 2028 if her party formed the next government. Holt, who is now premier, estimated the plan would cost $115.2 million over four years.

Several proposed primary care budgets have already been submitted by Horizon to the Department of Health to lay out the funding needed for each community, according to Margaret Melanson, president and CEO of the regional health authority.

“We do have a plan for the 17 interdisciplinary teams to be co-created and there has been active conversation with 70 physicians who would be engaged in this entire system transformation,” Melanson told media following Thursday’s meeting.

“The issue for us honestly is waiting on additional funding from government to really be able to activate these teams because though we do have these 70 physicians very engaged in this entire process, what they are looking for, of course, is this collaborative medical home model, which does create the need for allied health practitioners, nurse practitioners and so forth to basically augment and extend their services.”

Article content

Article content

Brunswick News has asked Horizon for the cost of these 17 family health teams and is waiting for further information.

Officials with Horizon Health Network are expected to meet in the coming days with new Health Minister John Dornan, according to Horizon board chair Susan Harley.

Brunswick News asked Melanson for the timeline for these 17 family health teams and whether the goal of “at least” 30 collaborative care clinics before 2028 was reasonable.

“This is a high priority as explained during the election campaign, so with appropriate funding, my belief is that we could activate these very much within the timeframe that has been delivered by our government,” Melanson said.

In a statement Friday, Dornan reiterated his newly formed government’s commitment to 30 community care clinics.

“We are looking forward to collaborating with stakeholders, including the regional health authorities, to find the best solutions to bolster primary health care services for New Brunswickers,” he said.

Almost 180,000 New Brunswickers are believed to be without a primary care provider, according to New Brunswick Health Council data.

Some of the Liberals’ proposed 30 new clinics are expected to be managed by the regional health authorities, while some are to be run by groups of health-care professionals and others through partnerships with municipalities.

Under Horizon’s primary care vision, each family health team would be made up of physicians, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals, which could include but are not limited to physiotherapists, dietitians and mental health clinicians, according to Natasha Lemieux, vice-president of community for the regional health authority.

Article content

The goal is to match each patient to the “right professional” to provide the “right treatment at the right time and at the right place,” she said.

During a recent round of consultation, Lemieux said Horizon heard from one physician in particular about the underutilization of doctors’ skillsets. In some cases, Lemieux said, family doctors are tied up with patients who could have been treated by another health-care provider. This would allow these doctors to devote their skillsets to more complex cases.

More than 220 physicians were consulted by Horizon over the last four months, Lemieux said, adding the regional health authority is reviewing how to utilize existing resources and “boost everyone to their full scope of practice” in order to “scale and expand” primary care access.

’47 sites isn’t enough’

More than 100,000 New Brunswickers are currently served through 47 primary care sites operated by Horizon across the province.

These sites are now under review, Lemieux said, with improvements underway to expand their services based on the “patient medical home” model, which is the utilization of interdisciplinary health-care teams.

These expansions will allow for more patients to be registered at these sites by the end of this fiscal year, Lemieux said.

Horizon has also set targets of launching five community access clinics and of transitioning 15 per cent of its current health-care providers to the team-based model during that same timeframe.

Article content

Lemieux said patients have been clear they want dedicated primary care teams who know them personally and their medical history.

It’s the vision Horizon has in mind for expanding primary care access.

“Essentially primary care becomes the hub of care,” Lemieux said. “Primary care becomes the place that you start your journey when you’re born and you end your journey at end of life, and everything in between.

“As you need different levels in the continuum of care, you might step out for a moment to get surgery and come back into primary care, so we really become the hub that follows you through the lifespan, and because of that, we really become the place that gets to know all of our patients very well.”

Article content