Rumours that Dr. Bruno Chiasson would be leaving family practice to focus on working in the Sackville hospital Emergency Department (ED) are not accurate… at least not exactly, says Horizon Health.

According to an emailed statement from Dr. Jody Enright, Horizon’s medical director for the Moncton area, Dr. Chiasson has been working an increased number of ED shifts recently to help cover a shortage of available doctors, but he has not given up his shared family practice with his wife, Dr. Roshni Kanji.

Enright says, the couple “have traditionally divided duties where Dr. Chiasson covers the Emergency Department and Dr. Kanji covers the primary practice.” Enright says “there are no expected changes to access,” for patients of the shared practice.

Horizon Health recently lifted a rule for doctors which required them to work shifts at the Sackville Emergency Department in order to maintain a practice in Sackville. After the changes, at least two doctors stopped working in the Sackville ED. The change was meant to help make recruitment of new doctors to the Sackville area easier, since not all family doctors are interested in working in emergency departments.

The two most recent closures of the Sackville emergency department were due to a shortage of doctors available to work.

CHMA has requested further information from Horizon regarding the number of doctors needed to properly staff the Sackville ER, and to meet the demand for family doctors in the region, but the health network has not responded.

Catherine Morrison of the Daily Gleaner recently reported that New Brunswick saw a net loss of seven physicians between April and June 2022. But the annual trend since 2020 has been upward, with the number of doctors working in New Brunswick increasing by about 20 each year for those two years.