Number of N.B. patients who have a primary care doctor declined slightly last year
Health Council survey shows downward trend slowing, appointment wait times stay steady
The number of people with permanent access to a doctor or a nurse practitioner in the province declined slightly last year — but according to the New Brunswick Health Council, the picture isn't as grim as it seems.
"Having maintained the level … is in some ways good news," Stephane Robichaud, CEO of the NBHC said about the results of the 2024 Primary Care Survey.
"It's stabilizing."
Seventy-seven per cent of New Brunswickers reported having a permanent primary care provider last year, which is two per cent less than in 2023.
Although the latest numbers show a continuing decline in access to health care overall, it's the first time in years that there hasn't been a stark drop, year over year.
Results in 2023 saw a six per cent drop from the year prior when 85.4 per cent of people had access to primary care. Those are the remnants of a downward trend dating back to 2017 when 93 per cent of New Brunswickers had a doctor or nurse practitioner.
To Robichaud, the latest results, which were released Wednesday, are a subtle sign that provincial initiatives like collaborative care clinics are slowing down the problem.
"[If] not for the initiatives that were implemented … we would have likely seen a smaller percentage than 77 again this year," he said.
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The council surveyed more than 5,000 adults over four months, beginning in October 2024, just as Premier Susan Holt's mandate began.
"The report does not surprise me," Minister of Health John Dornan said in an online interview with reporters. "This report tells us the work we have ahead of us."
Robichaud said the survey is not equipped to point to whether more patients are connected to doctors in either Horizon or Vitalité health networks.
In a report released Monday, Vitalité confirmed it now has 26 active collaborative care teams across the province.
But Robichaud and Dornan say it's clear certain regions in the province still present more challenges than others.
Only 64 per cent of people in the Fredericton and River Valley area toward Grand Falls reported having access to permanent primary care last year, which is the lowest rate in the province.
"There's been a number of senior physicians that have retired from that area and people have not assumed their practices, so this is an area that requires attention," Dornan said about the Fredericton region.
Meanwhile, Madawaska and other northwest communities saw an increase in people getting a permanent care provider with 74 per cent of patients connected, compared to 64 per cent in 2023.
"They are also the part of the province where they have among the highest number of family physicians per population," Robichaud said about the northwest.
Yet that region is among the worst when it comes to how soon they can see their doctor.
"Obviously, we still have work to do in how we're co-ordinating the organization of these services," Robichaud said.
Timely appointments still an issue across the province
Getting an appointment with a health-care provider when you need it remains a problem for patients across New Brunswick, according to the survey results.
Only about 1 in 3 patients said they were able to get an appointment with their doctor within five days of needing it. This average is the same as was recorded in the 2022 survey.
The Restigouche area has the lowest reported numbers in the province, with only 20 per cent of residents able to get an appointment in a timely manner.
On a national level, New Brunswick has one of the longest wait times for an appointment in Canada, Robichaud said.
"If people can't see their provider in a timely way, it's almost like not having a provider," he said. "They end up going … to the emergency room or an after-hours clinic."
Dornan said he is still optimistic that the province can reach its goal of getting more people connected to primary care.
"Our four-year goal is 85 per cent and I think that's pessimistic," he said. "I would like to do much better than that."
Robichaud believes the province needs to focus on managing how services are rolled out in collaborative care clinics.
"We're still hearing from New Brunswickers, for example, that some doctor's offices are requesting them to limit their issues to one issue per visit, which can be a challenge for some people," he said.
"It's going to be important to increase how co-ordinated, how integrated these strategies are."
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