Primary-care summit may be step toward end of solo practices in N.B.

The Department of Health and the New Brunswick Medical Society plan to co-host a provincial summit on primary health care at the end of May that could lay the groundwork for doing away with solo practices.

"Stakeholders from throughout the provincial health system will be invited to collaborate and discuss opportunities for transitioning to team-based primary care in New Brunswick," said department spokesperson Sean Hatchard.

No other details have been provided.

About 74,000 New Brunswickers do not have a primary care provider, deputy minister Eric Beaulieu recently told the legislature's standing committee on public accounts, although the actual number is likely higher since some people may not have registered.

Of those, roughly 54,000 people now have access to a team of primary care providers through NB Health Link, launched in 2022, while they wait for a permanent provider, he said.

The government and stakeholders continue to seek solutions as the province faces challenges with recruitment and retention and as the population continues to grow and age.

"We look forward to continued discussion with our partners as we work to tackle the ongoing challenges within the province's health-care system," Hatchard said in an emailed statement.

The medical society, which represents more than 2,000 practising, future and retired physicians in the province, supports the move toward team-based care, according to the president.

"We would like ideally, in the longer term, to have transformation and have everybody working within a primary health-care multidisciplinary team," said Dr. Paula Keating.

"Physicians want this. We just need support, and we need to work together with the regional health authorities and Department of Health to make this happen."

Keating said she hopes stakeholders will be able to agree at the summit "on a path going forward together to improve health care."

Meanwhile, she's calling on the Department of Health to make public its primary health-care transformation strategy and 18-month action plan, quietly launched about six months ago.

The medical society hasn't seen the strategy or action plan, which the department has committed at least $10.3 million annually toward implementing, she said. The society wasn't involved in developing them either.

"We'd like to see [them] in the public eye so that you know there is engagement — patients are aware, stakeholders are aware of what the process is, and that we can all guide and work together," said Keating.