New Brunswick to hire 25 medical specialists at cost of $16M

New Brunswick plans to hire 25 new medical specialists at an estimated annual cost of $16 million in a bid to reduce wait times, Premier Brian Gallant announced on Friday.

Doctors are applauding the move, but say more needs to be done to improve recruitment and retention efforts, given the existing 26 vacant positions for specialists across the province.

Recruitment will begin immediately with a goal of filling all of the new positions this fiscal year, Gallant told the crowd gathered in the light court of the Saint John Regional Hospital.

The first hire will be a cardiologist at the Saint John Regional Hospital, where the New Brunswick Heart Centre is located.

The specialties and locations of the remainder of the positions will be decided based on the vacancies identified by the regional health authorities and the Department of Health, he said.

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Of the 26 vacant specialist positions, 22 have been vacant for less than one year, said department spokesman Paul Bradley.

He did not indicate how long the other four positions have remained unfilled, but the province has seen a net increase of 46 specialists in the past three years, according to the department.

"It is important to note that the positions announced today are above and beyond the positions that are vacant," Bradley said in an email. "This will ensure that we continue to hire more specialists to meet the needs of New Brunswickers."

When the premier announced the 25 additional specialist positions, he acknowledged wait times to see specialists in New Brunswick have been a "major challenge for a long time."

"With our province's aging population, we know that the challenge will be aggravated if we don't act swiftly and boldly."

'Long time coming'

New Brunswick is competing with other jurisdictions for specialists, who take years to train and are often in short supply.

Dr. Cory Gillis, a gastroenterologist at the Saint John Regional Hospital, said his department has been looking to hire a specialist for "quite some time."

He believes adding billing numbers is a good first step — one that has been "a long time coming."

"To the best of my knowledge this is the … new creation of billing numbers for the first time since 2011," he said. 

"So it has been a bit frustrating because of the practice of physician billing-number restriction."

Consultations underway

The New Brunswick Medical Society is pleased the government has recognized wait times to see a specialist are "a significant concern" and has taken "concrete actions" to address the issue by creating the new positions, said president Dr. Dharm Singh, a urologist based in Campbellton.

The province has also created a new website that lists all physician vacancies in the province, including specialists and family doctors, full-time and locums, at both the Horizon Health Network and Vitalité Health Network.

We have to be more active and we have to enhance our strategy for recruitment and retention in this province.- Dharm Singh, N.B. Medical Society

Meanwhile, the professional association is consulting with specialists to identify the issues hurting recruitment and to find ways to address them, Singh said.

For example, many specialists like to practise in areas where they've been trained, but New Brunswick does not offer much specialist training, he said.

"We have to be more active and we have to enhance our strategy for recruitment and retention in this province and try to fill these 25 positions, and also those positions which are already vacant."

New Brunswick has a lot to offer, said Singh, citing its natural beauty and being a safe place to raise a family.

"We just have to go out and tell the young doctors and the training doctors, 'Please come here and start working here. This is a great province.'"

More balanced lives for doctors

Faster access to specialists can potentially help reduce undue pain and provide faster treatment for patients, enabling them to return to a healthier lifestyle earlier, said Singh.

The additional specialists will also help create a better work-life balance for existing physicians coping with heavier workloads because of shortages, he said.

Heavy workloads can lead to burnout and absences, "increasing the burden on [an] already stressed system."

In February, the provincial government announced plans to create 25 new family doctor positions over the next year at an estimated cost of $15 million, despite having the same number of current vacancies for family physicians in the province.

The province expects about 20,000 New Brunswickers who don't currently have a family doctor could have access to one once those positions are filled.

The announcements come just months before the provincial election, slated for Sept. 24.