Coalition welcomes end of NB Health Link contract, calls for more public control of services

Public health care campaigners have welcomed the Liberal government’s decision to end a contract with Medavie Health Services NB to provide primary care services to people awaiting their own provider.

Now, they’re calling for the province to take control of more health services that have been consigned to the private sector.

The NB Health Coalition says the province should reconsider the private delivery of ambulance services, extra-mural care, nursing homes, virtual health consultations, and the 811 Tele-Care service.

“It’s important that they get more health services in-house,” said Jean-Claude Basque, co-chair of the group.

“Minister Dornan must absolutely continue to bring other health services back under provincial control, thereby equipping himself with the tools needed to better coordinate and manage our public health care system more effectively,” he said in a statement.

He made the comments after the Department of Health announced that it would take over responsibility for New Brunswick’s patient wait-list and that its regional health authorities, Horizon and Vitalité, would take over management and operations of NB Health Link programs.

Those services are currently provided by Medavie Health Services NB, a subsidiary of the Medavie group, a private not-for-profit corporation based in Moncton.

The Department of Health is expected to assume responsibility for the wait-list by December, while the transfer of NB Health Link programs to the regional health authorities is expected to be complete by March 2027.

In a news release, Health Minister John Dornan said the changes would improve coordination and oversight within the health care system. The heads of both health authorities also expressed support for the changes.

Medavie Health Services NB is also responsible for Ambulance New Brunswick and the Extra Mural Program, which provides home-based health care.

Spokespeople for the Department of Health didn’t provide any comment by publication time, but Dornan told the CBC there are currently no plans to end those arrangements.

Privatization of health services has occurred under Liberal and Conservative governments in recent decades.

The NB Health Coalition and other public health care advocates maintain that programs run by the government are ultimately less costly and easier to coordinate, while providing greater accountability and better public services.

Basque pointed to a 2020 auditor general report on ambulance services, which found that under a contract with Medavie Health Services NB, paramedic shortages “created over $8 million in surplus payments” to the company, “providing an incentive to maintain low staffing levels.”

Medavie CEO Bernard Lord was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.

The privatization of health services in New Brunswick came under wider scrutiny in 2024, following revelations about spending on temporary nursing services during the COVID-19 crisis.

One of those companies, Canada Health Labs, reportedly charged fees amounting to roughly $300 per hour, several times the average wage of a nurse on staff at an Atlantic Canadian hospital.

New Brunswick’s Vitalité Health Network was the company’s biggest client for so-called travel nursing services.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op based in Moncton. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative.