Did you find it odd that the most joyous season of the year had to be tainted with cries from the hospital authorities for people to stay away!  In the messaging, the situation at emergency departments was described as chaotic.  It was not a time that instilled confidence in what is definitely a distressed health care system.  Government raised hopes during the last election that this would all be fixed.  In fairness, the promises and raised expectations took place prior to the Pandemic and that was yet another tragedy for which the province was seemingly ill-prepared.

Marg Melanson, the Interim CEO of Horizon, who has given stellar leadership since the major government intervention on July 20, 2022, came out on Saturday with the promise to fix the problems.  I do believe that she is sincere, committed, heartbroken about the public discomfort.  But the issues causing the Christmas, and other elements of Chaos, date back long before her time, long before Dr. Dornan’s time, long before the time of Premiers Higgs, Galllant, Alward, or Graham.

Melanson inherited an organization that was struggling before the pandemic for reasons cited earlier in these columns.  Cyclical and unplanned leadership change and political intervention do not make for superb organizations to thrive.

The Op Ed by Dr. Paula Keating, published on December 17 by Brunswick News, was refreshing.  It was a delight to see the President of the NB Medical Society strongly advancing the concept of integrated, multi-disciplinary primary health care.  It was refreshing because it is a concept, well developed in other areas, that has been advanced in New Brunswick for nearly 20 years yet the traction has been slow to realize.  In recent years some innovation has been sparked not because of government innovation or direction but out of sheer common sense when physicians themselves take the bull by the horns to create models that better serve the public in 2023.

The medical society itself, a very influential body, has advanced models in the past that seem tentative and not filling the definition that Dr. Keating articulates.  The Department of Health has not been able to get serious vision cast regarding integrated and multi-disciplinary primary care.