{"id":47424,"date":"2021-03-17T11:30:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T15:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=47424"},"modified":"2021-03-19T11:31:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T15:31:29","slug":"mesheau-calls-for-permanent-health-care-committee-in-mayoral-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/mesheau-calls-for-permanent-health-care-committee-in-mayoral-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesheau calls for permanent health care committee in mayoral campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hear Shawn Mesheau in conversation on Tantramar Report, here:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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Sackville mayoralty candidate Shawn Mesheau is calling for a regional citizens\u2019 committee to represent the needs of Tantramar area residents when it comes to health care. Mesheau also thinks the town of Sackville can contribute to the recruitment of health care professionals and the potential for a collaborative health care centre to serve the region.<\/p>\n

Mesheau says he\u2019d like to see a regional health care committee developed so that the local voice on health care issues is more consistent over time. \u201cWhat I hope to achieve here with the help of many others, is to ensure that we have something that is sustained over time, to keep that voice in place about healthcare, not just in Sackville, but in the region here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mesheau says a regional health care committee could provide, \u201ca voice that will be there, no matter who is a mayor, who is a councillor, who is a doctor. Something that I have found over time is that we\u2019ve lost sight of that, and we seem to be reactionary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mesheau sees a regional reach for the committee covering the provincial riding of Memramcook-Tantramar.<\/p>\n

Mesheau says one of the things he learned during the breakout sessions of the first round of healthcare consultations in Sackville on March 4 was that if you live in one community, \u201cyou don\u2019t necessarily understand the needs of another community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to approach everybody and find out who are the key people that should be involved,\u201d says Mesheau. \u201cAnd over time, I foresee this not being politicized. I don\u2019t think politics should play a role in healthcare.\u201d Except, of course, for politicians to help ensure that the committee\u2019s activities are heard and connected with decision makers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019ll be the hurdle for any sort of committee,\u201d says Mesheau, \u201cbeing heard and being recognized by the health authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to recruitment of medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians and other health care workers, Mesheau says the town should play a role, and that the university could play a role. \u201cIs there opportunity that we can work with [Mount Allison] to maybe get a graduating student or students to consider Sackville?\u201d wonders Mesheau.<\/p>\n

Mesheau also thinks the town and university may have a role to play in creating a new type of health centre for delivering primary care, something that\u2019s not just focussed on solo practitioners, \u201cbut having kind of a group approach to it,\u201d says Mesheau, to allow for after hours care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there an opportunity to work with the university on developing, you know, an after hours clinic, maybe on campus that would be accessible to the general public as well besides student population?\u201d asks Mesheau. \u201cI think there\u2019s opportunity to have those conversations. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve explored it enough and I hope that\u2019s what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a cancer survivor, Mesheau has had his share of experience with the health care system in Sackville. In the process of diagnosis and treatment for kidney stones at the Sackville Hospital, a doctor found a tumour on one of Mesheau\u2019s kidneys. For that, he had to head to Moncton to consult a specialist and get surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the efforts of fundraising, they had a new surgery unit that they had just put into place,\u201d says Mesheau. \u201cAnd they were able to do the surgery laparoscopically. So it meant less recovery time for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The major surgery still meant four days in recovery before Mesheau could return home. \u201cAnd then the follow up afterwards was all through the clinic here in Sackville,\u201d says Mesheau. \u201cAnnual checkups and x-rays and blood work all done here in Sackville.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though his tumour was found to be cancerous, Mesheau managed to avoid chemotherapy. He was given the all clear on his cancer after about 5 or 6 years, and admits he was lucky the tumour was caught in time. \u201cIt could have progressed to a certain point that I could have lost my entire kidney, and it could have spread elsewhere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The experience was traumatic, says Mesheau, but he only has good things to say about the care he received and the health care workers involved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hear Shawn Mesheau in conversation on Tantramar Report, here:   Sackville mayoralty candidate Shawn Mesheau is calling for a regional citizens\u2019 committee to represent the needs of Tantramar area residents when it comes to health care. Mesheau also thinks the town of Sackville can contribute to the recruitment of health care professionals and the potential…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":47432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223,225],"tags":[4665,823,7342],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47424"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=47424"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=47424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}