Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton says it’s hard to know what to expect from the first virtual session of the province’s health care reform consultation tour taking place on March 4.

“The process at this point is still a little bit vague,” says Mitton. “But I’m confident that what I will hear is a lot of people from our communities, showing up online to talk about how essential the services that the Sackville Memorial Hospital provides are to our communities.”

Mitton says one of the concerns she’s heard is that, “the consultations are just going to be a show, and that the government is already kind of set with what they’d like to do.”

“I hope that that’s not the case,” she says.

Either way, Mitton is encouraging people to show up online on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. to, “make their voices heard about what you need and what is valuable in our communities.” Mitton says she will be tuning in and taking notes, and bringing what she hears with her to the legislature.

Mitton says she hopes the government will be listening for ways not just to maintain services, but to improve them.

“There are things that we can do better and that we need in our rural communities,” she says.

One of the issues she points out is that connected challenges that impact health care are often dealt with separately, in silos.

“Issues around long term care are dealt with separately from health care, when there’s obviously clear links," she says.

Mitton also mentions the retention and recruitment of health care workers and preventative health care as issues that often get left behind in health care discussions.

“The thing with complex problems, is that also often means there’s a complex solution,” says Mitton. “And not just one solution. It’s solutions.”

“When we’re talking about our hospitals, part of what we’re talking about is emergency care, acute care. That is really important, when you have been in a car accident, or had a heart attack, or have something urgent happening, you need that type of service to be available. You need an ambulance to be close, and you need an ER to be close,” says Mitton. “But then there are things like preventative care, primary care, other types of care.”

Public or social factors also play a role, says Mitton. Transportation, poverty, and nutrition all, “feed into ensuring that we don’t have as many chronic illnesses that people are having to deal with,” she says.

“These public health factors end up impacting people on an individual level. And if we don’t take that into account, then we will continue to have people suffering the consequences with their health," she adds.

Mitton refers to a recent report from the New Brunswick Health Council which shows a drop recently in life expectancy at birth for New Brunswickers, a stat that until recently had been steadily increasing for decades.

“That should not be the case,” says Mitton. “We need to focus on how to make improvements. And again, improvements within healthcare but that system can’t be treated as separate from every other system.”

The public consultation session on the future of health care in the province will come to Sackville, virtually, this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. To register, click here.

To read the province’s discussion paper on health care reform, click here.

The public engagement schedule for New Brunswick:

• Thursday, March 4, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Sackville;
• Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Sainte-Anne-de-Kent;
• Thursday, March 11, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Caraquet;
• Tuesday, March 16, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Perth-Andover;
• Thursday, March 18, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Sussex;
• Tuesday, March 23, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Grand Falls;
• Thursday, March 25, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Campbellton;
• Tuesday, March 30, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Moncton;
• Tuesday, April 6, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Upper River Valley;
• Thursday, April 8, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Saint John;
• Tuesday, April 13, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Charlotte County;
• Thursday, April 15, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Bathurst;
• Tuesday, April 20, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Fredericton;
• Thursday, April 22, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Miramichi; and
• Tuesday, April 27, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Edmundston.

Anyone interested in attending a session, may register online.

Hear Megan Mitton interviewed on Tantramar Report here: