Green leader David Coon and Tantramar candidate Megan Mitton promise to restore more local control to hospitals and health care facilities
“Good morning from Sackville,” said Green Party leader David Coon today as he greeted supporters and journalists.
“I’m at Megan Mitton’s campaign office to announce the Green Party’s commitment to bringing local decision-making back to our hospitals and our communities.”
Coon promised that a Green government would establish community health boards to oversee local health facilities and would ensure that a local administrator is appointed to manage each hospital.
“The management of our health-care system has become so over-centralized that it has lost touch with the needs and expectations of our local hospitals and the communities they serve,” Coon said.
“The solutions proposed by doctors and nurses working on the ground don’t go anywhere,” he added.
“They fall on deaf ears because of this broken management system.”
Sackville’s hospital
Coon referred to the Higgs government’s plan in 2020 to cut services at Sackville Memorial and five other rural hospitals.
In Sackville, the cuts would have meant permanently eliminating overnight emergency room service, closing the hospital’s operating room and converting its 21 acute-care beds into ones for patients awaiting placement in long-term care.
“Thanks to community outrage and having a local champion like Megan Mitton who knows how important the Sackville hospital is to this community, the ER is still open in Sackville,” he said.
“She fought for it and she won as our entire caucus did for the other five rural hospitals.”
$380 million annual investment
Mitton herself said establishing more community control is only one part of the $380 million annual Green plan to invest in health care.
On the first day of the campaign, she said, Coon promised a series of measures to recruit more doctors and nurses.
“A Green government will increase the number of health-care providers in our system by bringing them home from PEI and Nova Scotia, ensuring New Brunswick graduates have an incentive to work here at home,” she said.
“For starters, we would raise the salaries and benefits of nurses and other health professionals to be in line with our neighbouring provinces.”
Mitton also referred to the Green pledge to provide free tuition bursaries for medical and nursing school students who sign a contract to work in New Brunswick for at least five years after graduation.
“With tens of thousands of New Brunswickers with no primary health-care provider, this is an emergency we need to fix,” she said.
She blamed previous Liberal and Conservative governments for not investing in health care and not listening to the warnings of health-care professionals.
“Unfortunately, we’re in a crisis now, but I know it doesn’t have to be this way,” she said.
Megan Mitton & David Coon outside the Green campaign headquarters at 87 Main St. in Sackville
Promises promises.
The overwhelming support and coverage for the distant third place party from The “Wark Times” is absolutely suitably beautifully fantastico lol . Good good Job Bruce.
Thanks for covering the Green Party of NB, Bruce. They may hold the balance of power in the next legislature, so it’s important to know where they stand.
Same old same old, green, red or blue party just pigs at the troath. Only here to help themselves. They all will perform miracles making our lives so much better, give me a break. Nothing big has come to Tantramar only the closing of over 50 businesses.
Crisis? healthcare? Um is there anything else this Green politician ever talks about?
Many people understand that their health is their responsibility and their concern. Megan seems blissfully unaware of what her role is as an MLA. Somewhere along the line she became entrenched into the medical arena, most likely due to the coviet era, but nonetheless we are – many of us – doing fine, healthy, not feeling there is a crisis and not concerned anywhere near as much as Megan is about the state of medicine. Could it be that its easier for Megan to ignore topics like supporting small businesses, stimulating the home builder economy, growing the region’s economy and over-taxation is it perhaps because she has her talking points given to her by mentor David Coon? I’m ready for change.. I voted for Bruce Phinney.
How is voting for the current government “voting for change”?
Health care is the top issue on NBers minds according to polls, and the top provincial budget expense.
Not needing an ambulance or cancer treatment at this moment yourself doesn’t mean that a functioning health system isn’t essential. Even a child can understand that.
Considering how health care is important to people, and how badly and continually bad it is, yeah, it’s good SOMEone cares about it (or in this case, party). And if I recall, Megan is the Green Health Care critic, so it makes sense it’s a focal point for her.
“Many people understand that their health is their responsibility and their concern. ”
Clearly you don’t understand the current situation with health care then because this is BEYOND person “responsibility and concern”. Also, interesting; when you said “Coviet” do you mean Covid, or are you dogwhistling something else entirely with that non-word?
Not feeling there is a crisis? Are you for real?!
Just because you want to blind yourself to the reality of health care and just how bad it is in NB – and across Canada as a whole – doesn’t mean it’s not happening. YOU may have the grace of not needing a personal doctor, or any sort of Emerg visit, or any other kind of Health Care, but there are too many that DO need these things and it’s harder to access that, thanks to successive Governments (Liberal and Conservative) not giving any focus at all to health care as a whole.
Thankfully, others out there realize the issue and want to do things about it. If it doesn’t make you concerned, then… perhaps move your “concerns” along to the things that do matter to you.
Somehow I can’t seem to find the article from the last election in the archives but I clearly remember both the liberals and greens declaring the hospital was or would be saved. The green mla clearly had a photo op beside a liberal sign stating they had already saved the hospital. Just political grandstanding and more of the same if re-elected.
At the time it was believed the hospital was “saved”, as there were plans to keep it open, continue the ER and get our Evening/overnight coverage in place.
But then things continued to be ignored and we’ve yet to have that evening/overnight coverage, leaving the local population with only Amherst or Moncton as options if there’s an Emergency.
Considering the proposed changes if elected are NOT more of the same and in fact may just be what’s needed to get health care back into some semblance of working, I don’t see how dismissing the idea helps what so ever. It’s at least better than the do-nothing the Cons have committed themselves to.
From doing nothing about health care from the Cons, to doing some things by the Liberals, to actually something that SHOULD be done by the Greens, it’s FINALLY good to see one party actually GET how health care should be, especially in NB.
Centralization has only made health care WORSE, not better. Anyone who thinks that this kind of idea isn’t what’s needed clearly doesn’t work in health care themselves.
Sadly this one issue won’t make the Greens in power, but maybe if they get enough seats to be a voice, health care can be changed to this and locally we can control our own health care decisions for our own hospital again.
Healthcare is personal responsibility Elaine. Unless you believe that the nannystate is your friend. If you don’t know how to take care of your own body and your own mental and physical health as an adult but you think its the governments’ job you’re in more trouble than you realize. Active living, non-drinking, non-smoking and self care are very real and important healthcare strategies.. you cannot rely on government – that was the thrust of my message to you. I am a grownup and I can think for myself about the things I see before me. I would never expect my politicians to “fix” anything.. they are not running “Horizon Healthcare”.. they never will be.. its a separate and unelected organization that frankly showed itself during the “coviet era” to be a fascistic and authoritarian monster. No slip of the language by me.. I mean what I say.. always.
… absolutely none of that made sense.
No one is saying healthcare isn’t a personal responsibility. No one is relying on Government to ‘take care of yourself’. I’m not sure where you’re imagining that up but it’s not from reality.
But your “Coviet” comment says it all so I shouldn’t be surprised I guess.
I hope that when you or your family need health care, it’s there for you despite you wishing otherwise.