N.B. premier open to more health-care spending as long as funding sees results – New Brunswick

Premier Blaine Higgs said he is willing to spend some of the province’s projected surplus of $135 million on health care system, as long as there is a “return on that investment”.

Earlier this week, the province announced that its projected surplus rose $100 million to $135 million after stronger-than-expected revenue growth in the first quarter. Since then, Higgs has come under pressure to get that money back into the province’s ailing health care system.

The Prime Minister says he is open to that, but only if results will follow.

“If a doctor comes to me, a specialist of any kind comes to me and says, ‘If you fund this, I will provide this,’ and that means good results. more for our province’s customers and patients, we’ll be there,” he said.

In this year’s budget, spending on health increased by more than 6%, or $168.5 million, the biggest annual increase in more than a decade. Higgs tweeted last month that the budget “funds the change we need” to improve the healthcare system and was quick to point to the increase in health spending when speaking to reporters. member on Thursday.

But when it comes to the province’s projected surplus, a number that’s not far from the amount of health budget increases this year, Higgs suggests that not much will be done to improve the system.

“When you look at the money, $135 million against our $11 billion budget, if you have $100 that’s 13 cents. So to the extent of what we spend every day, it’s not money in the bank,” he said.

But it is more than enough to start implementing the priorities outlined by healthcare professionals according to David Coon, leader of the Green Party.

“As doctors and nurses have repeatedly said, they have suggested important changes that really made a difference over the course of a decade, but they have yet to see any of them,” he said. be done.

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Protesters call for improvements to the NB health care system

Coon points to primary care clinics as an example, where people without a family doctor can go to get primary care. The establishment of those clinics and the deletion of the patient connection list is one of the measures expected to be completed by the end of the month under the province’s five-year health plan, but has yet to materialize.

“That would be where I would see that money go immediately if I were the head,” Coon said.

Part of the $135 million projected surplus is health care-specific money. The federal government has sent $41 million to the province to help clear the surgery backlog, and while the province says that money will be spent by the end of the year, liberal health critic Jean-Claude D’Amours question why it’s not used now.

“It was the prime minister who said we need more money from the federal government, but please, let’s spend it. Make sure people who need surgery for a long time can have surgery for them,” he said.