Greens to Restore Local Authority to Community Hospitals

October 7, 2024

SACKVILLE – This morning Green Party leader David Coon joined Green Party deputy leader Megan Mitton in Sackville to announce the Green Party’s commitment to restore management authority to local  hospitals.

“We will restore the autonomy that hospitals and health centres lost under the amalgamation of eight regional health authorities into two,” said Coon. “No more decisions handed down from on high by managers who do not work at the hospital.”

Coon pointed out that centralization of management responsibilities by both Liberal and Conservative governments has created management silos within our hospitals, robbing them of the authority to solve problems locally, and opening the health care system to political meddling.

“We saw what happened here in Sackville when distant managers decided to eliminate its acute care beds, and close the ER overnight. The community fought back. Thanks to the work of Megan Mitton to advocate for the local health care needs of her riding, the Sackville Hospital was saved. She fought for it and she won,” added Coon.

To ensure local healthcare services reflect the needs and expectations of the community, a Green government will establish local community health boards. This will ensure community members can again participate in decision-making for their local health facilities, as was the case when we had local hospital boards. 

“We have seen successive governments eliminate local decision-making in our healthcare system, resulting in poor decisions being made far away in offices in Fredericton,” said Mitton. “I’m proud of how hard my community has fought back against Liberal and Conservative plans to cut services at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. It shouldn’t have to be this way.”

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