Let me tell you a story about “orphan patients”. I’ve been tracking the #NB wait list for a family doctor or NP since 2016 via published news reports. In recent months, things have fallen off a cliff. Here’s the deal 🧵: The Patient Connect list launched in 2013. The list grew steadily for a few years. I think the growth had less to do with ⬆️orphaned patients, and more to do with creating a list. A stable and growing list probably was a good thing, as people signed up.

So, early thoughts on the NB health plan: It's laudable that many of the goals listed come before the next election, with quarterly reporting by @NBHealthCouncil. It's politically risky to not put off timelines for several years instead. @Gov_NB is willing to be judged on this. On primary care: Interesting to see the inertia of billing numbers lives on! The plan notes vacancies in rural NB (true) but doesn’t have a focus recruitment on urban NB (where orphan patients primarily live). In short, # of open positions do not represent where need is highest.

The @NBHealthCouncil released its acute care survey for NB last week. I find these surveys interesting and had a look. The survey was done well before Covid. nbhc.ca/news/nbhc-surv… Thread warning... 1/x: 2/x First, some caveats. The data aren’t great for the tiny hospitals because there are so few respondents. 5/9 hospitals in Vitalite had fewer than 100 responses, 5/11 in Horizon had fewer than 100 responses. Only 3 hospitals in NB had 1000+ responses.