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Currently, 190 patients are being treated in hallways, storage closets, meeting told
Published Oct 30, 2025 • Last updated 3 days ago • 4 minute read
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Horizon Health Network president and CEO Margaret Melanson is pictured in this file photo. BRUNSWICK NEWS ARCHIVEArticle content
The ongoing bed crisis in Horizon Health Network’s hospitals has led the health authority to activate its “winter surge” plan months earlier than usual, warn that a “tough” season is “likely,” and reveal that overcrowding has already caused a $20 million budget overrun.
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The vast majority of Horizon’s quarterly board meeting, held at a Fredericton hotel on Thursday afternoon, involved discussion about the hundreds of alternate level of care (ALC) patients languishing in hospital beds while they wait for placement in long-term care facilities or home care.
That blockage continues to have serious consequences, the meeting heard.
As of Thursday, the meeting was told, there are 190 “unfunded” beds in service in Horizon facilities. Those patients, said Greg Doiron, Horizon’s vice president of clinical operations, are being treated in offices, hallways and storage closets.
That’s happening despite most of Horizon’s hospitals already enacting a 120-day protocol to move their ALC patients to the top of the long-term care home wait list.
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“Our emergency departments continue to be stressed with high volumes,” board chair Susan Harley, who noted that the ideal capacity for a hospital is 85 per cent and that Horizon is currently at 107 per cent, said in her opening remarks.
“The number of times that we have patients that have been admitted from the emergency department and waiting for a hospital bed is far too common. We simply do not have rooms readily available at all times to put these patients into. That is not the level of patient care that we want to provide.
“That’s why the board and I asked our CEO and her executive leadership team to get ahead of the capacity challenges as we approach this year’s respiratory illness season. We are indeed in the midst of a crisis with respect to hospital occupancy and the cold and flu season has not hit us hard yet.”
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Harley also spoke about the lack of available long-term care beds.
“Two years after identifying that properly caring for a medically discharged senior patient was a priority for patient care and safety in our hospitals, we’ve seen very little movement in increasing the nursing home capacity to match the level of need or discharging patients to their own homes with the support they need. We urgently need solutions for patients who are not getting the care they need, and at the same time freeing up much needed space for incoming patients in need of acute care treatment.”
Horizon president and CEO Margaret Melanson jumped in soon after, first celebrating good recruitment numbers, but then turning her focus to the ALC patient crisis, and its effect on the system.
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“These pressures directly affect every aspect of our health care system, from emergency department wait times to the timely admission of new patients. Hospitals are designed to provide acute care, not to serve as long term residences,” Melanson said.
Harley and Melanson’s comments set the direction for the meeting.
When it was Doiron’s turn to report to the board, he painted a vivid picture of what’s happening by talking about the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton, where 42 per cent of all patients are ALC patients.
“How does that translate to the care that we’re providing … in our emergency department? If you are needing emergent care here in Fredericton, there are 10 emergency bays available. (Whether you) come in with a heart attack or a broken arm, 10 of our 30 emergency bays are available.
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“Why? Because the remaining 20 are occupied by patients who are currently admitted, waiting for a bed in the hospital, but are unable to get one because all of our beds are occupied now.
“They will eventually be admitted. The average (wait time) is approximately 19 hours. Some patients will wait as long as two days to go up to an admitted room. But they’re not always going to a room. Sometimes the space they’re going to is a hallway, a storage room, an office with no bathroom, no privacy, no dignity, and ultimately, no ability for them to benefit from the environments they need to be able to properly heal physically, emotionally and spiritually.”
In an interview, Doiron said Horizon activated its “winter surge plan” – which has kicked in in early December in the previous two years it’s been used – in September this year because the network is trying to get ahead of an anticipated surge in respiratory illnesses. COVID-19 activity is “moderate,” according to the province.
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But Doiron also noted that “we can only control the things that are within our mandate.”
“We’re getting ready. I think we realize that our current circumstances are such that we were expecting it’s going to be a tough winter if we see an increase in emergency visits.”
The surge plan, he said, centres around improving the flow of patients within hospitals, “but also looking at novel ways we can support patients to accelerate their discharge.”
Those include working “more effectively” with emergency medical technicians “to better accelerate discharges home,” and “working with our clinicians to really reinforce our ability to have those difficult (discharge) conversations with patients and families” while allowing everyone involved to feel comfortable and safe.
Brunswick News asked to speak to Health Minister John Dornan at the legislature on Friday, but he wasn’t made available.
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