Medicare‑based model replaces estimates, waiting lists, gives officials monthly updates, regional breakdowns
On Thursday, Sept. 24, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt and Health Minister John Dornan announced the new patient attachment data system.
The new system can determine whether New Brunswickers have a primary health care provider using Medicare data, rather than survey data, waiting lists, or estimates.
“We will have one single version of the truth and an accurate understanding of who has care and what progress we’re making to ensure that New Brunswickers have access to primary care,” said Holt.
“This is going to help us make the best data-informed decisions possible about the future. This is going to allow us to determine the best places to put our resources. We know New Brunswickers couldn’t wait.”
With the new Medical Services Agreement, Holt said the shift to physician rosters tied to Medicare billing gives the province a single, reliable source of truth. Each patient can appear on only one provider’s roster, and updates occur monthly, eliminating double counting and outdated estimates.
Holt says the new data shows that 619,354 New Brunswickers currently have a primary provider, making patient attachment 70.2 per cent of the province’s population.
The new system comes as the province continues to expand collaborative care clinics. The 11 clinics that have opened in the past year– Campbellton, Moncton, Miramichi, Fredericton, Bathurst and Saint John. Additional sites announced for Memramcook, Hampton, Eastern Charlotte, Nackawic‑Millville, St. Andrews, Perth‑Andover and Beaurivage are expected to attach around 19,500 patients.
Holt said the team‑based model is helping attract and retain physicians, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals.
“Each clinic has their own schedule, their own plans to meet our objectives of providing primary care to New Brunswickers.With this approach, we’re seeing now with our partners that more and more primary care providers are coming together, are adopting this model, are reaching out to members of our team to get the right supports that suit their communities,” said Holt.
In Perth‑Andover, Dr. Allison Kennedy postponed retirement because the structure allows a gradual transition, while a practice‑ready assessment graduate has joined the clinic. The Fredericton North clinic has attached more than 1,000 patients, including one who had waited six years. The Hampton team is expected to serve everyone on the community’s waiting list of more than 1,500 people.
Dornan said the data will help identify regions with the lowest attachment rates, including Fredericton at 63 per cent, while some areas report rates near 90 per cent.
“Having strong, reliable information helps us understand where our successes, where our problems, where our challenges are today,” said Dornan.
The new system will provide monthly updates, regional breakdowns and a public dashboard by the end of the year.
The government aims to open 30 collaborative care clinics by next year and has set a long-term target of an 85 per cent attachment rate by 2028.
Virtual Care NB improvements
Holt said the Virtual Care NB team is consistently increasing capacity by adding more nurse practitioners, with more appointments and more bilingual coverage. She said it has reached a point where appointments are available but not being booked.
“The processes for reporting daily to test access and timely response and staffing that we’ve been undertaking with our partners have been paying off, because we’ve seen that service improved now to the point where there are significant numbers of appointments every day, and we’ve reached a place where we think we’re getting close to that saturation point,” said Holt.
