From: Austin, Hon. Kris (JPS/JSP) <Kris.Austin@gnb.ca>
Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:25 AM
Subject: Automatic reply: Mayor Tom Eagles should recall our conversation 2 years ago
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for taking the time to write, your email is important to me.
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From: Hogan, Hon. Bill (EECD/EDPE) <Bill.Hogan@gnb.ca>
Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:25 AM
Subject: Automatic reply: Mayor Tom Eagles should recall our conversation 2 years ago
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Please note that I am currently away from my office due to the New Brunswick provincial election and will be unavailable until after the election period concludes. During this time, I will not be responding to emails related to my ministerial duties. For urgent matters, please contact: EDcommunication@gnb.ca
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Veuillez noter que je suis actuellement absent du bureau en raison des élections provinciales au Nouveau-Brunswick et que je ne serai pas disponible avant la fin de la période électorale. Pendant cette période, je ne répondrai pas aux courriels liés à mes fonctions ministérielles. Pour les questions urgentes, veuillez contacter : EDcommunication@gnb.ca
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Je vous prie d'agréer l'expression de mes sentiments distingués,
Bill Hogan
From: Fitch, Bruce Hon. (DH/MS) <Bruce.Fitch@gnb.ca>
Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:25 AM
Subject: Automatic reply: Mayor Tom Eagles should recall our conversation 2 years ago
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your email.
The Constituency office will be closed due to the upcoming election, and therefore, emails will not be monitored.
We will be in Caretaker mode until after the election on October 21, until the new government is formed.
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Thanks again for your email.
Hon. Bruce Fitch
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Merci pour votre courriel.
Le bureau de circonscription sera fermé en raison des prochaines élections provinciales, et par conséquent, les courriels ne seront pas surveillées.
Nous resterons en mode intérim jusqu'après les élections du 21 octobre, jusqu'à ce que le nouveau gouvernement soit formé.
Si votre demande concerne la santé, veuillez contacter Francine Belliveau au Ministère de la Santé à francine.belliveau@gnb.ca ou au 506-457-4800.
Merci encore pour votre courriel.
L'hon. Bruce Fitch
---------- Original message ---------
From: Moore, Rob - M.P. <Rob.Moore@parl.gc.ca>
Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:25 AM
Subject: Automatic reply: Mayor Tom Eagles should recall our conversation 2 years ago
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for contacting the Honourable Rob Moore, P.C., M.P. office. We appreciate the time you took to get in touch with our office.
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If your question or concern is time sensitive, please call our office: 506-832-4200.
Again, we thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns.
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Office of the Honourable Rob Moore, P.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Fundy Royal
---------- Original message ---------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:25 AM
Subject: Mayor Tom Eagles should recall our conversation 2 years ago
To:
<office@plasterrockvillage.com>,
<mayor@plasterrockvillage.com>, teagles
<teagles@nbnet.nb.ca>, DeAnna.Hill
<DeAnna.Hill@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, Bill.Hogan
<Bill.Hogan@gnb.ca>, Mark.Blakely
<Mark.Blakely@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, Jacques.Poitras
<Jacques.Poitras@cbc.ca>, Newsroom
<Newsroom@globeandmail.com>, rob.moore
<rob.moore@parl.gc.ca>, John.Williamson
<John.Williamson@parl.gc.ca>, blaine.higgs
<blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, bruce.fitch <bruce.fitch@gnb.ca>,
briangallant10 <briangallant10@gmail.com>, kris.austin
<kris.austin@gnb.ca>
Ambulance delays still an issue 6 years after crisis upended election
Mayor of community hit by paramedic shortages calls on province to rip up ‘flawed’ ambulance contract
Tom Eagles says it's just a matter of time before a slow ambulance response time leads to a tragedy in his community.
The mayor of Tobique Valley, a sprawling district that includes the former village of Plaster Rock, said he's surprised that rural ambulance service hasn't become a major issue in the New Brunswick election campaign.
"Everybody's in the mindset. Everybody thinks the system is broken," Eagles said.
On one recent night, the ambulance normally stationed in Plaster Rock was deployed to Campbellton because of unstaffed paramedic positions there, Eagles said, leaving his community covered by a team based in Saint-Léonard.
That would mean a response time of an hour or more for some of the remote communities in Tobique Valley, such as Nictau or Riley Brook.
Six years ago, public alarm about paramedic job vacancies — some unfilled because of bilingualism requirements — helped upend the provincial election.
The president of the union representing paramedics followed then-Premier Brian Gallant's Liberal campaign around the province, focusing public attention on the problems.
Greg
McConaghy of CUPE LOCAL 4848 is seen here shaking then-Liberal Leader
Brian Gallant's hand as Gallant left a campaign event in Riverview
during the 2018 election campaign. (Pierre Fournier/CBC News)
On election day the Progressive Conservatives won one more seat than Gallant's Liberals and formed a minority government backed by the People's Alliance, which made the ambulance crisis a centrepiece of its campaign.
The situation is no better now, according to Chris Hood, the executive director of the Paramedic Association of New Brunswick.
"From a response-time standard — worse. Worse. It's not getting any better," he said.
"By their own admission, Ambulance New Brunswick would say in certain pockets of the province, their ability to staff ambulances and get ambulances to ambulance calls within the contractual obligations is worse."
Medavie Health Services New Brunswick Inc., the service provider, uses a dynamic deployment system that involves shifting the locations of ambulances as crews are deployed.
It can leave smaller communities without an ambulance when the local vehicle is shifted closer to larger population centres.
With many seniors, and a paper mill full of workers using large industrial saws and other gear, Eagles said it's time to deal with the province's contract with Medavie, which runs another three years.
"I think the contract should be ripped up as we speak, and the government should run it themselves," he said.
"We have great staff, we have great equipment, but we need to do something with the contract. I think it's flawed in a lot of areas. The government's got to come up to the plate. Are they going to wait until 2027 to do something?"
Chris
Hood, executive director of the Paramedic Association of New Brunswick,
says the overall number of vacancies remains around the same as in
2018. (CBC)
Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs said this week that the paramedic shortage "was an issue six years ago and it doesn't seem to be an issue today, other than the opportunity to utilize even more so the capabilities that paramedics have."
"As far as contractual issues, I think that we're moving along okay. I don't know of any current issues that are a problem."
In 2020, New Brunswick's auditor general slammed the Medavie contract and how it measures performance.
The agreement requires the company to respond to 90 per cent of calls within target times — nine minutes in urban areas and 22 minutes in rural areas.
But under the contract, rural response times are averaged into broader regional numbers that include a far greater number of on-time responses in urban areas, the audit said — meaning there's no incentive to improve the rural times.
Medavie used to include monthly response rates in each community in New Brunswick on its website, but that stopped at the end of 2022.
"Following a transition to a new dispatch system in January 2023, work was required to configure data in a way that ensured accurate reporting of response time data by service areas," spokesperson Eric Robichaud said in an email.
"This reconciliation work regarding our response time data is ongoing."
Health-care
officials are looking at letting paramedics play new roles, such as
helping out in hospital emergency departments to alleviate pressure on
other medical staff. (CBC)
Officials from Ambulance New Brunswick, the provincial government entity that contracts with Medavie for the service, told a committee of MLAs last year they want to renegotiate the agreement, but there's been no word on changes.
A green paper prepared by the government at the time of the crisis in 2018 reported there were 101 paramedic vacancies, 61 of them full-time and 40 part-time.
Of the total, 82 positions required bilingualism.
"It's about making decisions to fix the problem," Higgs said in 2018 as he argued for putting aside the bilingualism requirements.
His government eventually acknowledged it couldn't legally do that.
PC
Leader Blaine Higgs said this week that the paramedic shortage 'was an
issue six years ago, and it doesn't seem to be an issue today, other
than the opportunity to utilize even more so the capabilities that
paramedics have.' (Radio-Canada)
But it put in place other measures to address the problem, including a patient-transfer service that does not require bilingual staff, more paramedic training in English and French and a reclassification of their jobs into a different union that boosted wages.
Health-care officials are also looking at letting paramedics play new roles, such as helping out in hospital emergency departments to alleviate pressure on other medical staff.
That's happening at the small hospital in Sussex, and Eagles says it was supposed to be happening by now in Plaster Rock, but isn't.
Hood says opportunities like that can help with recruitment, because it offers paramedics other work options.
"Opportunities are starting to show themselves, which I think is nothing but a good thing," he said.
Hood said working in a "truck," as an ambulance is called within the system, tends to have a time span of about seven to 10 years before an employee burns out or must leave due to injury.
Higgs said in this week's CBC leaders' debate that 24,000 calls to 911 last year were from people who didn't need to go to a hospital, and advanced care paramedics were able to help them without having to take them to an ER.
"I think the point is we have to do health-care differently," said Higgs, whose campaign has promised to further expand the scope of practice of various health professionals.
Hood said that needs to happen faster.
"There's all kinds of projects that could be undertaken. We just need to bite the bullet and start doing it."
He describes the issue of sending the hypothetical "last ambulance" available to someone complaining about a sore foot, making it impossible to respond to a cardiac arrest.
"That's the kind of thing we need to start thinking about and triaging in real time — what kind of calls we're going to send the absolutely last resources to," he said.
"Nobody's saying that they don't need an ambulance. What we're saying is somebody needs an ambulance more urgently than you do."
Hood says he's not heard any recent concerns about bilingualism requirements, but the overall number of vacancies remains around the same as it was in 2018.
That, plus delays in ambulances offloading patients at hospitals because of staff issues in those facilities, continue to cause response delays, he said.
At any given time, about 25 per cent of the paramedic workforce can be out with injuries or on long-term disability or maternity leave, or on secondments, Hood said.
Eagles says he's still hoping ambulance service gets more attention in a provincial election in which health care has been a top issue.
"The main issue is primary care in the province, and this is just a trickle-down effect," he said.
"We're trying to fix the doctor situation, the nurses situation, this is just another cog in the wheel and it's very very important we get this right."
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All Comments
Comment by Christine Martinez.
16 hrs ago
They transitioned to a new dispatch system in January 2023, which required work to reconfigure data to ensure accurate reporting of response time by service area. The reconciliation work of the data is still ongoing.
That tells me as much as I need to know. If any competent company required a reconciliation of existing data that took more than 20 months (and counting), they'd be accused of incompetence. So either Medavie is incompetent or, more likely, and as they've already proven, they're gaming the system to maximize the money they get from the government. Either way it needs to be fixed.
For anyone to claim it's a data issue is willfully blind. The government is allowing Medavie to fleece them (and therefore fleece taxpayers).
Comment by John Montgomery.
18 hrs ago
Everyone wants healthcare to get better. Ambulances are a part of that.
Comment by Ed Franks.
23 hrs ago
I have a Translate app on my phone and it works great.
Comment by james bolt.
23 hrs ago
Well of course big campaign on something and they did not fix it.
Do you really think 6 years of the CPC is going to fix carbon tax?
Comment by Ronald Miller.
1 day ago
Bilingualism paying big dividends again. Hang in there, you may have to wait over an hour, but at least when someone gets there they will be bilingual, I feel better already.
Reply by Jack Bell.
1 day ago
You know our society is beginning its collapse when people are more worried about language than loved ones dying.
If it's an emergency, as long as a trained paramedic is showing up in a timely fashion, I don't care if they only speak Latin.
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Reply by Don Corey.
21 hrs ago
Rural wait times of an hour+ are simply totally unacceptable.
By the time the ambulance arrives, the person who needs help may no longer be with us, so bilingual or unilingual becomes irrelevant.
At least Plaster Rock does have an ambulance service located in the village.
However, I’m wondering why Poitras is not looking into why a St Leonard ambulance wasn’t sent to Campbellton, instead of the one in Plaster Rock.
And, the mayor is correct about the Medavie contract for rural wait times, and it’s sure not the first time this issue has been raised. Hopefully the time has arrived for political leaders to fix it.
Reply by Mathieu Laperriere.
21 hrs ago
Why couldn't they learn French?
Reply by Jack Bell.
21 hrs ago
Because we're more interested in their skillset and we'll lose them to places that don't require multiple languages.
Reply by Ronald Miller.
21 hrs ago
I agree, 1 hour plus is not acceptable. Problem is we can't hire available paramedics due to linguistic regulations.
Reply by Ronald Miller.
21 hrs ago
They could get training for it once hired, but they should not be precluded from being hired due to that limitation.
Reply by Mathieu Laperriere.
21 hrs ago
Good communication is a skillset and this province does require bilingualism in some areas. Bad communication can lead to bad patient outcomes. Anyone wanting to work for the provincial or federal government should know, by now, that being bilingual will help you get that job. If they don't want to learn French then they can work in an area that doesn't require it. There are many vacancies; it might not be where they want to work ... But there are some. They can work, get free education provided by the government to improve their french..... Challenge the test, get the grade, get that bilingual posting..... Or just complain about Francophones, bilingualism and about how unfair it is some more...... Same arguments given for the past 30+ years ... If not more.
Reply by Mathieu Laperriere.
21 hrs ago
Bilingualism is a skillset just like putting in an IV. Some areas, you need it.
Reply by Ronald Miller.
20 hrs ago
Would you rather someone come to your aid in 15 minutes who can't speak the language of your choice or wait an hour for someone who can? Seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me.
Reply by Ronald Miller.
20 hrs ago
Paramedics don't complain about it, they just move or work elsewhere, meanwhile the majority suffers.
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Reply by Archie MacDaniel.
1 day ago
The mayor didn't just bring this up now. This issue has been raised since Gallant was in power and hasn't changed with Higgs.
Try to keep up.
Reply by Ronald Miller.
1 day ago
Either he has been bringing it up continuously and JP decided to wait 6 years to make it a pre-election hit piece or he has not, which brings us back to my post. You can decide which one.
Reply by Don Corey.
21 hrs ago
This issue is not left or right Ronald (despite Poitras). It’s about the lengthy rural wait times for an ambulance because Medavie is allowed to play games with the contract.
Comment by David Amos.
1 day ago
Mayor Tom Eagles should recall our conversation 2 years ago
Comment by Allan Marven.
1 day ago
That guy is sure out of touch with the reality of health care in NB.
Reply by David Amos.
1 day ago
Yup
Comment by Ron parker.
1 day ago
all talk, 6 years have gone by and not much has changed.
Reply by David Amos.
1 day ago
Guess who is gonna run against Higgy
Reply by Ron parker.
1 day ago
are you putting your hat in the ring?
Reply by David Amos.
1 day ago
Yup
Reply by Archie MacDaniel.
1 day ago
Higgs is all promises and no action.
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