New ER doctor hired for Sussex hospital: Horizon

An update on operations at the Sussex Health Centre has Mayor Marc Thorne celebrating “good news” for health care in the region.

In a community health care update dated March 28, Horizon Health Network announced the hiring of a new emergency department physician as well as new part-time nurse positions. The network says it’s continuing to recruit physicians “locally, nationally and internationally” for the whole health region, which runs west through Saint John to the Charlotte County Hospital.

Thorne, who sits on a local health care steering committee, told Brunswick News Thursday that the announcements are the result of work being done across the community to address concerns about health care in Sussex. The town has been without 24/7 ER service since a “temporary change of service” in 2022, with the emergency department now open 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. seven days a week.

“What we’re seeing here in my view is the great efforts from Horizon, the management of our local health centre and our local health care professionals,” Thorne said. “The work they’re collectively doing on many fronts is starting to bear fruit.”

Brunswick News has reached out to Horizon Health Network and did not receive a response by press time.

The update says one new physician will be joining the Sussex Health Centre emergency department team starting May 5. This month, Horizon said that a full-time nursing position at the hospital will be filled by an employee returning, and that they have posted two part-time nursing positions, one permanent and one temporary.

“Ensuring a strong and sustainable health care workforce remains a priority as we continue to enhance staffing capacity,” Horizon wrote in the update.

In May, Horizon said the hospital will welcome four licenced practical nurse preceptorship students, and at least five students are considering coming to Sussex as part of Horizon’s Student Nurse Advancement Pledge program, which allows bachelor students and practical nursing students a “seamless transition” into nursing.

The hospital has also completed renovations to the central supply room, the emergency department public washrooms and some patient rooms, according to the update, and added murals by Sussex-area artists Robin Bradshaw and Fred Harrison. The medical device reprocessing department has received a new sterilizer and the operating room received new computers and tech as part of the “Pisces” program, which allows for paperless charting.

The update also included information on “family health teams,” which is a term the provincial government has used synonymously with collaborative care clinics. Premier Susan Holt’s Liberals have pledged to establish 30 local clinics in the next four years, starting with supporting “current team-based clinics” and opening 10 new clinics in the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

In Horizon’s update, they described “family health teams” as groups of different health care workers like physiotherapists and respiratory therapists who work together to provide “the right health care, from the right provider, at the right time.”

The update said that family health teams are currently a “familiar concept” at the Sussex Health Services Complex.

Horizon says it’s “actively working to strengthen this, with space planning underway to optimize the clinical environment” and enable a collaborative practice model.

The first of the 30 collaborative health clinics will come via a physical expansion of Fredericton’s Northside Community Health Centre and the addition of two physicians and two nurses, the province announced Monday at the Brookside Mall clinic. 

It’s expected to result in about 1,600 more patients who currently don’t have a primary health care provider being removed from the patient wait list and attached to the clinic.

The Sussex mayor called the collaborative model “the future of effective health care.”

“Very often, it’s been siloed, but when you can get teams in place that can support one another … I think it’s something we’re going to truly benefit from,” Thorne said.

Thorne said the update, posted on the town’s social media pages on Monday, was spurred in part after he heard some of the updates in a steering committee and told officials, “you’ve got a lot of good news here.”

He said that through the committee, hospital management had said they’re welcoming four physician residents in an internal family and emergency medicine program this summer.

“We have become the centre of excellence for rural medical education,” Thorne said, saying that’s the result of management and local healthcare professionals to “build value in our hospital.”

Sussex-Three Rivers MLA Tammy Scott-Wallace, a Progressive Conservative, said that since the October provincial election, she has continued to have conversations with Horizon on moving files forward at the hospital and said the update was “encouraging.”

“It’s just important that people in this region know that investments are being made in hospital, our hospital’s not going anywhere,” Scott-Wallace said. “We’re seeing new hires that should make us all feel optimistic that there’s a lot of work going into stabilizing our Sussex Health Centre.”

She said a lot of work has been done over the past year on recruitment, saying that Horizon overall has reported a net gain of 125 new doctors from April 2024 to February 2025.

“To me, it feels like progress is being made,” Scott-Wallace said. “In Sussex, until our emergency room is open 24/7, I’m not going to be content.”

In September 2022, the hospital’s emergency department shortened from 24/7 to 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., with CEO Margaret Melanson telling Brunswick News they hoped to restore service within less than a year. The ER currently operates with a mix of full-time staff and those rotating in from other communities, and Horizon said in August 2023 that it needs six full-time staff to offer “safe and continuous care.”

The shortened hours mean that those in need of care are asked to go to Saint John or Moncton, with a man telling Brunswick News last year that he was turned away from the hospital in August while having a heart attack.

In May last year, Horizon shortened the hours again by moving the opening time to 8 a.m., saying that would ensure “consistent physician coverage.” It’s since announced plans to have nurses and paramedics handle more ER duties, as well as introduced a virtual care model for those with less-urgent needs.

Scott-Wallace said she’s “encouraged” that virtual care services, including Teladoc, remain part of the discussion, saying it was her government’s intent that the service, along with other medical professionals, could be used to keep ERs open longer. The current government said in January that only virtual urgent care services will be offered when a physician is not present, with those requiring emergency care asked to call 911.

“Certainly Teladoc would never be intended to replace an emergency room doctor, but it was seen by Horizon and our government as a way to ensure overnight hours for the less severe cases,” Scott-Wallace said, saying they had hoped to see that by this spring. “I’m looking forward to hearing the plan from the new minister and Horizon and I’m encouraged by the recruitment that’s happening.”

Earlier this year, Horizon rejected a call from the New Brunswick Medical Society (NBMS) to pull the plug on the virtual health care pilot project at the Sussex and St. Stephen hospitals, despite a warning that the move could lead to the closure of more rural emergency rooms.

Thorne said his expectation from the town’s perspective is that Horizon, the hospital and physicians make sure that Sussex remains “an important part” of health care delivery in the region.

“I know that the conversation is usually around the emergency room, but there is so much more to providing great health care to any community, whether it’s improving facilities themselves, attracting doctors and nurses or becoming future training centres for doctors and nurses,” Thorne said.

“This work has been going on for more than four years, and I think we’re going to see more of that.”

With files from Barbara Simpson, Brunswick News Archives