January 3, 2024

FREDERICTON - In the wake of crushing ER wait times over the holidays, Fredericton Green Party Leader David Coon is calling on the New Brunswick government to implement real solutions to end the dangerous log jam of patients in the province’s ERs.

“Patients admitted through the ERs are occupying exam rooms and tying up equipment needed by those in the waiting rooms because they are waiting for beds.  To unclog the system, the hospitals need to be funded to establish short-stay wards, beyond the ER, where patients can wait for beds in the regular wards,” said Coon.  “ER physicians have requested this improvement for years, but it continues to fall on deaf ears.” 

The other solution Coon wants to see implemented would increase the number of hours funded for doctors working in the ER. At the Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton there is a solitary doctor on duty after midnight, who cannot keep up with the flow of patients overnight, leaving pandemonium for the doctors and nurses arriving on the morning shift. Coon says ER staff have been calling for funding for a second night doctor, without success.

“ER wait times have been dangerously long since I was elected in 2014, yet successive Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to provide the leadership necessary to solve the problem,” said Coon. “As ER docs have warned us since 2015, people will die waiting, and they have. It’s time for real solutions to really solve the problem.”  

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Media Contact:

Jill Mersereau

[email protected]