Health minister discusses northern options
RESTIGOUCHE - Both Campbellton and Dalhousie will benefit from steps the provincial health department will take this year.
For Campbellton, a new $85 million psychiatric hospital is in the planning stages, although health minister Mike Murphy says that they haven't progressed to the architectural drawing stage yet.
In a telephone interview last week, Murphy said that the hospital will be built by the private sector.
"Last year, (Premier) Shawn Graham and I toured (the Restigouche Hospital Centre) and said that the individuals there didn't have a very good go of it, and that the hospital is so obsolete and we couldn't wait five years or six years to find the money, so we went to the private sector," Murphy said. "The private sector will build it according to the specs that we require..."
He said that there remains a question of whether this will be a rental arrangement or a "rent-to-own" one. "We'll determine all those things through the Department of Supply and Services, who are in charge of that project."
As well, the former forensic unit at the Restigouche Hospital Centre is being renovated. This will provide 11 beds. This project had been started before the decision to build the new hospital and must be completed.
Murphy said that the palliative care beds at the St. Joseph Community Health Centre in Dalhousie should be in place by the end of the year and that they are working on the "24/7" primary health care there is being planned.
Murphy said that there had been several discussions of the 24/7 service over the last two months, that he could not say exactly where it stands. He said that he is "trying to get that (Dalhousie) ramped up sooner than the others.
"We have to find out the availability of human resources right now. We have a pretty good program to bring the doctors, nurses and LPNs in, but at the same time, when the palliative beds are open and running, that brings a new parameter into the equation. We'll need people for that, but those same people may end up working in primary health care at St. Joe's, so they may have a mix of skill sets," he said.
Both were promised during the campaign before the last provincial election.
Murphy was asked about the possibility that a new laundry will be built in the area. The Dalhousie town council has been asking that it be constructed there to help offset job losses when the AbitibiBowater paper mill closed.
"The non-clinical amalgamation will result in two laundries, one in southern New Brunswick outside Saint John, and one in northern New Brunswick, which will be situate in either Campbellton or Dalhousie, depending on the load it will have to take; in other words, we have to review what amount of infrastructure we presently have in Campbellton, whether that's something that's simply (to be) upgraded or whether when we have a greater load for the northern half of the province, whether a whole new infrastructure is needed," Murphy said. The laundries will work geographically rather than being assigned to the two new regional health authorities.
"So, something in jobs with regard to that will be coming to the area, but there's also the reality that the non-clinical (aspects) are the responsibility of the Shared Services Agency."
He said that the agency has the option of going "to the market" for things like accounts payable, accounts receivable, purchasing and so on.
"So the many hundreds of jobs that are around the province are going to be compressed into the Shared Services Agency," he said.
Murphy said that the agency could go to the private sector for services like these, particularly where the work is clerical. Companies like Assumption Mutual Life or Medivie-Blue Cross could bid on them and "various jobs may land in various parts of the province, including up there." He added that the department will have to see what the board of directors of the Shared Services Agency decides, "and that is several months away."
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