Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Health-care providers at Caraquet’s only hospital are hopeful the addition of new acute care beds will bring shorter hospital wait times and support for staff.
A unit featuring 10 acute care beds is now open at l’Hopital de l’Enfant-Jesus, bringing the hospital’s capacity from 12 to 22 beds.
“This strengthens the team to offer a better quality of care and to support each other as a team, which is important in small hospitals like ours,” Dr. Gilbert Blanchard, a family physician who works at the hospital, told Radio-Canada in French.
The unit, announced by the province Wednesday, creates about 25 new, full-time positions in nursing, physiotherapy and social work, according to the province.
The hospital is the only one in Caraquet, with larger hospitals about 30 minutes away in Tracadie and 50 minutes in Bathurst.
L’Hopital Enfant‑Jésus in Caraquet offers emergency care seven days a week as well as general medicine services and palliative care. (Vitalite Health Network)
The hospital has faced staffing shortages and slowed down its overnight emergency services during an entire weekend last month due to a lack of doctors.
Blanchard said the addition is vital for a hospital that has been seeing ER doctors leave.
He told Radio-Canada on Tuesday he and another doctor in the region, Carl Boucher, will be returning to work at the emergency department to help bolster the team.
Both have been dedicating their family practice to hospital care for years but felt it was time to help the ER, specifically.
“It is certainly true that, in recent months, quite a few emergency physicians have jumped ship …and filling the schedule this autumn was a major challenge,” Blanchard said.
He said he feels a sense of responsibility to breathe new life into the team and to buy the hospital time to recruit new doctors.
“It’s a stimulating environment, here, with many great challenges even though the practice in this region isn’t always easy.”
Dany Paul Haché, a patient being cared for in the new unit, said the rooms are comfortable and private. (Mario Landry/Radio-Canada)
The new acute care unit costs $8.3 million, according to the province.
The individual rooms are designed to treat patients needing medical as well as palliative care.
Equipped with modern equipment, they include a patient hoist to assist with mobility issues.
Each is also a negative pressure room which prevents the spread of airborne diseases from spreading to reduce the harms of an outbreak.
A release from Vitalité Health Network said the unit welcomed its first patient Oct. 5.