Doctors and nurses are having panic attacks on the job, and many who haven't already left because of stress are exploring ways to, according to an emergency room doctor in Fredericton.
New Brunswick's health-care system is in "crisis," and Dr. Yogi Sehgal says political and health-care leaders need to act immediately before the exodus of staff reaches a "critical mass" that leads to widespread hospital closures.
"You could see the system kind of steadily circling the drain over the last few years and in the … last year, a lot of people have been leaving on a daily basis, and they tell me the reasons for it and those reasons haven't changed at all.
"It's scary to go to work and see people having panic attacks at work and actively looking for other jobs on their breaks."
Sehgal said the problems facing the province's health-care system have become so dire that he was inspired to gather his own recommendations and those of his colleagues. On Wednesday, he emailed copies of a 10-page report he wrote to Premier Blaine Higgs, Health Minister Bruce Fitch, Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard, and leaders within the Horizon and Vitalité health networks. The laundry list of recommendations covers how emergency departments could be better staffed and operated, better compensation and more protection for nurses, and boosting incentives to recruit physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants for improved access to primary care.
Speaking to CBC News on Thursday, Sehgal said the problems facing the province's health-care services are systemic, with problems in one area having knock-on effects in others.
However, he said one of the biggest problems is the lag in having eligible hospital patients transferred to nursing homes.
"If you just remove those patients out of hospital, you now have a whole bunch of space and potential staff that you can use in other ways, so that's a big one for me," he said.
"And of course, the nursing home patients will get better care in a nursing home than in the hospital."