Patients being asked to continue appointments in English
Few Francophones in New Brunswick have been able to book appointments with the province’s Virtual Care NB online medical service.
A Caraquet woman, who asked not to be identified, tried to get a French-language appointment with the new service early last week. When she finally got through, she was asked if she could proceed with the call in English. While she is more comfortable speaking French, she continued with the appointment because she is bilingual and needed to be seen.
Her case is not uncommon. For those trying to book appointments with the new service, French speakers often don’t have availability. When there are openings, appointments can be days away.
When the River Valley Sun logged into the system on Friday, Aug. 7, there was one available appointment in English, and none in French for the foreseeable future. On Sunday, Aug. 9, there were no French appointments available to book, and English-language appointments were only available after Aug. 15.
On the French site, patients are greeted with this notice:
“There are no available time slots. Please choose another option or contact your clinic.”
In an eVisitNB social media post on Saturday, Aug. 8, the New Brunswick-based company that had the contract until June 30 publicly questioned the lack of French-language appointments with the new provider, Foundever.
“That is difficult to reconcile with what GNB told New Brunswickers when it replaced eVisitNB. GNB repeatedly highlighted access in both official languages when explaining and promoting the new service,” reads the company notice.
eVisitNB, which operated on the Maple platform, was started by emergency room physician Dr. Hanif Chatur and a partner. It provided virtual care services to New Brunswickers since the COVID-19 pandemic, officially signing a contract with the provincial government in January 2022. In the fall of 2025, the Holt government issued a Request for Proposals (RFP). In January 2026, the contract was granted to the international company, Foundever.
When the province announced the new provider, the health minister and the premier both mentioned “issues” with the bilingual services provided by eVisitNB, noting that the new service being rolled out would offer French-language services seven days a week.
“eVisitNB had previously faced legitimate complaints regarding French-language access. Those concerns were investigated by the Commissioner of Official Languages,” said the post on eVisitNB’s Facebook page. “But by January 2025, the Department of Health itself reported that the corrective measures had been implemented, that there had been no new complaints, that English and French service were equivalent, satisfaction exceeded 90% in both languages, and staffing capacity existed in both official languages for every shift.”
eVisitNB comments on lack of French-language appointments
Dr. Dornan has repeatedly touted the exceptional services Virtual Care NB would provide patients.
Woodstock-Hartland MLA and Conservative health critic Bill Hogan says the latest news on Virtual Care NB is another disappointment.
“Apparently it isn’t the service that was promised by the minister. It’s disappointing to see a quality service being replaced by something that is substandard,” he said when contacted by the River Valley Sun.
Some New Brunswickers who couldn’t access care in their language of choice commented on eVisitNB’s recent social media post.
“We bought a month with Maple [eVisitNB] because after trying to get an appointment for 30minutes on the new service, it kept bugging. If you can pay, Maple [eVisitNB] is the way to go,” wrote Emmanuelle Parent.
“I paid for a one-time visit. Going through the rigmarole of virtual NB was too much, and ended up with not getting an appt and having to go to emerge when I know eVisit could help me, was much more ideal,” commented Michelle Ann.
On Aug. 7, the River Valley Sun sent an email to the Department of Health, asking the minister why it’s so hard to get French-language appointments. Our request was acknowledged, but no one got back to us before the deadline. The newspaper has also requested an interview with Shirley C. MacLean, K.C., the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick.
“Minister Dornan promised New Brunswickers a bilingual health-care service, not simply a bilingual website,” reads the eVisitNB post on Facebook. “Being able to read a booking page in French is not the same as being able to receive health care in French. If this is a temporary problem, GNB should explain what happened and when French-language appointments will be restored.”
Comparing numbers
The Department of Health has released initial numbers for Virtual Care NB.
In an emailed statement, Morgan Bell, a Communications Officer with the department, said that between June 30 and July 21 (22 days), Virtual Care NB had “completed 2,045 services.” That is an average of 93 patients per day.
In comparison, eVisitNB data provided to the River Valley Sun for July 2025 showed the New Brunswick-based company served 23,531 patients, an average of 759 people per day. That’s a difference of 88 per cent.
No definition of ‘completed services’ was provided, but the spokesperson wrote that the department did not have “the detailed information needed to allow a more in-depth review.”
In her email to the River Valley Sun, Bell said the department is making changes to obtain more detailed data.
“Moving forward, we have made standardized data formatting, accessibility and retrieval key requirements in our Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to improve data quality, consistency, and analytical accuracy,” she wrote.
