​The Case for Civil Service Overhaul

New Brunswick is a wonderful province in which to live and retire!  Its assets and attractions are many ranging from beaches, beautiful and breathtaking coastline, great hunting, fishing and other outdoor sports, cities with wonderful walking trails, churches, academic institutions and ever so much more.  It was identified in 1992 as a province in which the health care system could become a model for the country.

Despite its qualities and attractions, highways and streets and related infrastructure seem always in need of major overhaul.  And the health and long-term care system, despite the years of talk of reforms, still seems stuck with many issues that impact quality health and long-term care.  Indeed, the TJ article on June 6.25, written by Andrew Waugh, reported that national comparisons show NB as the worst performer in Canada in terms of Emergency Department wait-times. 

It is clear that emergency department wait times, organization of and access to primary care, and long-term care are all very much interconnected services.  For anyone desiring to make a difference in our health care system, that is the first thing they need to understand.  These inter-connected relationships have been documented in the literature for half a century!

At election time, attention always goes to those seeking office with strong pressure from the public to promise to fix these things that have been so bothersome to the public for decades.  Once elected, it often seems to take light years to get even the most obvious small change made be it dangerous road conditions or more than obvious “fixes” for the most basic of health and long-term care issues.

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