“The biggest problem for many working people is that the actual work on their desks is the easiest part of the job. Nothing they are responsible for doing at work is especially challenging. It's only hard to do the job because of the politics, the stupid rules and the dark, fearful energy that flows throughout the workplace and bogs everyone down. A broken culture makes everything else harder, from organizing projects to getting critical approvals to move your work forward,” so says Liz Ryan, CEO and Founder of Human Workplace.
The workplace, particularly in health and long term care, must be magnetic for this is the only environment that creates great care for vulnerable people seeking what they cannot do for themselves.
Organizational literature abounds with books, articles and resources on workplace toxicity with many success stories as to how to create a magnetic work environment.
Read more here  

Seventy Thousand New Brunswickers rely on Emergency Departments for basic primary care?

​The Emergency Department is a poor substitute for well-organized Primary Care.  So in this province that has the highest ratio of physicians to population in Canada, why do seventy thousand persons use the Emergency Department as their regular source of medical care (NB Health Council Report on Access, 2017)?
Recently physicians in Fredericton and Saint John expressed their concerns about the over-crowding and backlogs in hospital emergency departments, as they should.  Health Minister Ted Flemming responded on Friday, May 17, 2019 that he thinks there are options not yet explored in order to resolve the issues.  Read more here

​Rural Health Care:  essential reality in NB

It is said that 85% of residents of New Brunswick live within 50 km. of a major municipality.  For those people the urban model of health care may work, albeit with imperfections well covered by the media.  That means that 90,000 residents still live in small towns, villages remote from larger centres.  The Acadian Peninsula, Grand Manan Island, Deer Island, St. Stephen, Macadam, Gagetown.
Healthcare services for rural residents can be provided with superb quality without trying to replicate the days of numerous hospitals.  Take Northwestern Ontario, three times the geography of New Brunswick, where communities are often many hours drive apart.  Superb service is provided by one major Regional Hospital, four community hospitals that are equipped to provide superb secondary care, and a series of small hospitals re-purposed to serve primary care needs at local level.  Because the system is integrated and comprehensive, people love the efficiency and quality because they receive the care they need when they need it. Read more here

Our health system in New Brunswick is inadequate because a succession of governments has not been willing to take positions that distress interest groups and local riding associations.  Pure and simple!  Health care has become   highly politicized with sound professional judgments being subjected to overturn by the political structure when seats are perceived as being in jeopardy, not the highly professional set of complex services that it really is.
Jee See Heng, a businessman from Moncton, wrote a powerful commentary “Demand Accountability on Health Care Standards” in the April 29th edition of the Telegraph/Gleaner.  He reminds us of the extraordinary long waits in Emergency Departments, the issues with inconsistent After Hours Service and poses the logical question:  why? Read more here

“Everything either rises or falls on leadership.” So says John Maxwell, celebrated author and expert in leadership. Health and long-term care services are struggling in New Brunswick, and leadership is the issue.
My previous columns have expressed the need for vision in health care in New Brunswick. The need is beyond debate. And visionary leadership would have some key features.
Leaders express a compelling set of ideas that unites people to move toward common goals. The vision must be strong, compelling, easy to understand, achievable and measurable, according to expert Ichak Adizes, whose wisdom has fuelled the success of many global leaders.
Visions for health in New Brunswick over 30 years have included: “Reduce hospital regions from eight to two,” “balance the budget,” “hire more doctors,”  “adopt healthy aging,” “improve disease prevention” and “we are all in this together.” Read more here