Some health workers will soon change jobs: Liberals

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Premier Susan Holt has ordered an immediate halt to planned job changes for some workers in the Horizon Health Network, claiming that government was “extremely concerned” to hear about them, and that “meaningful consultations” need to occur first – despite her health minister saying that’s already begun.

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But that might just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg for Holt, who has repeatedly described herself as “a friend of labour,” and who is now being accused by the opposition of either being incompetent or a liar.

New Brunswick Nurses Union (NBNU) president Paula Doucet says someone is lying about the consultations already starting, because they haven’t. She now feels that “the trust is broken” with Holt’s government, and that the damage that’s been done may be “irreparable.”

And she’s not the only union saying there were no consultations: On Friday, the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers (NBASW) issued a statement saying it wasn’t consulted about the “ill-advised and uninformed proposed staffing changes.”

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Also, the lack of disclosure over the government’s planned changes at the bargaining table might lead NBNU, which is currently in contract talks with the province, to file a bad faith bargaining complaint, Doucet said. The union representing school support staff has already filed a complaint because the Liberals didn’t discuss planned budget cuts during bargaining.

Horizon president and CEO Margaret Melanson, already facing a storm of criticism after Brunswick News revealed that some mammogram appointments at Charlotte County Hospital have been cancelled, wasn’t made available for an interview on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Horizon cancelled a press conference that appeared to be focused on job changes for some of Horizon’s Public Health, mental health, and addiction workers.

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Melanson sent a statement in lieu of the press conference, which was supposed to be about “changes to strengthen Horizon’s Public Health and addiction and mental health services.”

“Horizon is in the early stages of a transformation aimed at strengthening the way we deliver Public Health and addiction and mental health services to reflect the evolving needs in our communities,” Melanson said.

“At the heart of this change is our shared goal: to create a sustainable health-care system that puts patients first and ensures we can deliver the highest-quality care possible. We remain committed to engaging in ongoing, two-way dialogue with our staff and all relevant stakeholders. This transformation will not happen overnight, and it will not happen without the voices of our teams at the table. We will share more details as we move forward in this process.”

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Now, those changes are on indefinite hold.

“We were extremely concerned to hear about potential changes from Horizon to roles in Public Health and addiction and mental health,” Holt posted on X. “Ministers (John) Dornan, (Rob) McKee and I have asked that there be a stop to these activities until meaningful consultation is done to ensure that all those who could be impacted have their concerns heard and that decisions are made in collaboration with those working on the front lines.

“We value the incredible, hard-working health care professionals of this province and we will continue to support them. Our priority is to care for the people caring for us and to make sure that New Brunswickers in the health-care system are served by the right people, in the right places, at the right time.”

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Just a few hours earlier, however, Dornan said that the job changes would proceed, and that consultations with key stakeholders were underway.

“Sometimes we have changes in skill mix, for example, and we have changes in people that can now work to a scope that we hadn’t expected before,” Dornan said.

“So in our health-care system, it’s very important for us to chat to people whom that affects. And so we’re in the process now of chatting with people on our front lines, the representative organizations, social workers’ association, nurses’ union, nurses’ association, to feel our way through the best way to do that … that’s respectful of our frontline workers.

“So that’s where we are right now, talking to people on the front line, talking to the representatives, so (if) we find that there is a need to give, or an ability to give, better care, with better staff, better skill mix group, it’ll happen in with collaboration.”

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Pressed for more information, Dornan said he “can’t speak to who is being moved to what area.”

“We do have a lot of staff vacancies. So that’s not a matter of deployment. That’s a matter of filling those vacancies. At the end of the day, in co-operation with our frontline workers, some people will take on different roles, new roles, different skill mix groups in an area. So yes, that will occur, but done in collaboration with the people that are affected.”

Doucet rejected Dornan’s suggestion that consultations have begun, and said she only had one recent meeting with Melanson, which was to discuss repeated questions from Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Glen Savoie about talk of health workers being redeployed.

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Doucet said on Wednesday, Horizon’s Public Health and addictions and mental health nurses were called to separate meetings, where presentations were made about the job changes.

“And as I was watching it, ‘I thought, wait a minute here. What’s this part about consultation with stakeholders?’” Doucet said.

“And NBNU was named … excuse me, but I haven’t had any consultation with Horizon on any of this. And then at the very end of the presentation, at the bottom slide it said stakeholders, for example, NBNU, New Brunswick Public Health and the Department of Health support this plan. I was like, ‘Hold on here, there is somebody lying. There’s misinformation here.’”

Doucet said she quickly contacted the two senior Horizon leaders who ran the sessions.

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“I said, ‘I’m sorry, but what you have provided to these nurses is incorrect. We were never consulted. I did meet with you on the 28th of May, but that was at a request to Margaret Melanson following the discussion that (Interim Progressive Conservative Leader) Glenn Savoie had started in the legislature on the week of May 6, 7, 8.”

That discussion with Melanson, Doucet said, didn’t come close to reaching the level of a formal consultation. She agreed it was more like “a coffee and a chat.”

Asked how the events have left her feeling – and how it will affect NBNU’s relationship with the Holt Liberals, and the ongoing contract talks – Doucet was blunt.

“The trust has been broken,” she said.

“It just goes to show what we have been saying for many years, if you want meaningful change in health care, you need to engage with us. You don’t come to us after the fact and say, ‘This is what we’re doing.’

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“What may look good on paper, trying to operationalize it does not work. And so when I asked to be at tables where discussions are happening around registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurse practitioners, it’s not a joke. We need to be part of these discussions. We are not a checkbox, nor are we an afterthought.”

While Doucet said she now has another meeting planned with Horizon, she made it clear that the network has lots of work to do to regain her members’ trust.

“The anxiety and the unrest that they have created within our public health-care system, I don’t know if it’s repairable.”

In a statement, NBASW  executive director Miguel LeBlanc said that “other than an information session by Horizon and a meeting (on Thursday), a few hours before a planned announcement by Horizon, there was no meaningful consultation.”

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“From what we were recently told the changes would result in a diminished role for social workers in the treatment of mental health and addiction services at a time when there is an increasing number of New Brunswickers requiring these services,” LeBlanc said.

“The NBASW made our opposition to these changes clear in the meeting and thankfully, they won’t be proceeding.”

‘Absolutely unacceptable’

For months, the Liberal government shrugged off requests from the PCs for more details about rumours they said they’d heard about health system workers – particularly nurses – being told they were likely going to be forced to move.

The talk of forced job changes in the health sector came up repeatedly in the legislature, with Savoie asking questions based on comments he said he’d heard from frontline workers. His questions were mainly focused on whether some registered nurses (RNs) were about to be replaced by licensed practical nurses (LPNs).

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On Friday, Savoie said he’s been vindicated, and took shots at everyone he says who doubted him – including the Liberals, the NBNU, and the media.

“I was speaking on the part of nurses, and for the premier to say that she remains ignorant of what’s actually happening … well, it’s either she is completely incapable as a premier, or she’s lying. It’s one of the two,” Savoie said.

Asked which he thinks it is, Savoie said he’d let New Brunswickers decide for themselves. But he scoffed at Holt’s claim that she didn’t know about the planned changes.

“I think the people of New Brunswick are deciding for themselves who this premier really is, you know, this is unconscionable,” he said.

“It is unacceptable, the chaos that they are creating in our health-care system. And I said this months ago, so when my integrity was being questioned and my ability to bring facts forward was being questioned by everyone, including their own union, I feel very vindicated.

“But unfortunately, it’s a sad day for the health-care system in New Brunswick. My vindication means nothing compared to the hurt and the upset and the angst and the anger that they are causing in our health-care system right now because of their decisions (which) they will not take responsibility for. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”

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