A report from New Brunswick’s auditor general found gaps in how the province planned and monitored the rollout of collaborative care clinics, including whether they were being established where they were needed most.
Paul Martin, New Brunswick’s auditor general, said the province did not document how community need influenced which areas got clinics.
“The audit determined the department did not have adequate information to demonstrate that collaborative care clinics were improving access to primary care where it was needed most,” he said, speaking at Public Accounts at the Legislative Assembly. “Gaps in cost analysis, performance monitoring and patient attachment data limited the department’s ability to assess results, address unmet needs and demonstrate value for money.”
He said that because collaborative care clinics are voluntary for physicians, the department does not have control over where clinics are established.
“This makes provincial planning especially important in communities where physicians do not voluntarily adopt the model,” he said.
Martin also said the collaborative model was done without a comprehensive financial analysis. He said projected costs did not include resources clinics are supposed to have access to like overhead, office assistants, nurses and other allied health professionals.
Performance targets, he explained, were not applied consistently.
He said at the time of the audit, the Department of Health did not have a complete overview of the number of New Brunswickers waiting for a primary care provider.
The report said the number of individuals without access to primary care in the province was more than double the number on the NB Health Link waitlist.
As of June 10, 2026, NB Health Link reported 126,576 individuals on the waitlist, according to the report. The department compared the number of individuals with active Medicare cards with its records of patients assigned to a primary care provider, and that number was approximately 271,703.
“Public reports indicated that 14 clinics announced during our audit had taken on 6,853 additional patients and were expected to take on more than 22,000 in total by 2028,” Martin said.
Checking the waitlist
The report said the department wasn’t checking whether clinic patients were coming off the waitlist — specifically noting Saint Andrews.
“On Dec. 8, 2025, the government reported that 10 clinics confirmed in 2025 were expected to remove more than 14,000 people from the primary care waitlist,” the report said. “On March 23, 2026, the government reported that the Saint Andrews clinic was expected to attach all 603 people on its local waitlist within six to 12 months.”
Martin said in the report that despite these expectations, the department was not analyzing newly attached patients to determine whether they had previously been on the provincial waitlist.
He said the department was unable to provide the data needed to complete an analysis on how many newly attached patients had come off the waitlist.
“Without this information, the department cannot determine whether collaborative care clinics are meeting the expectations to prioritize patients from the provincial waitlist or accurately assess the model’s impact on reducing the number of people waiting for a primary care provider,” the report said.
According to a progress tracker on Horizon Health Network’s website, the Saint Andrews Wellness Centre has approximately 3,000 patients and is accepting new patients off the waitlist.
Operational date
Martin went on to say the department used the clinic’s public announcement date as the baseline for measuring performance.
“However, clinics may be announced before they begin operating or before additional staffing, services and patient capacity are in place,” the report said. “As a result, the announcement date may not reflect when the collaborative care model became operational.”
He said in the report that the department did not establish a standardized process for determining an operational start date, which is important, given some were newly established while others were expanded or converted.
In St. Stephen, the collaborative care clinic was launched in February 2025. It was set up on the third floor of the Charlotte County Hospital (CCH).
In November 2025, the clinic was officially announced, noting it would be moved to a different location, but that location was not announced. At the time, Premier Susan Holt said the new location would be open “before the snow melts.”
Then in January 2026, the clinic location was announced. It would be at 20 King Street following renovations. In March, St. Croix MLA Kathy Bockus posted to social media that she had been advised by Horizon Health Network that the clinic would not open until January 2027.
Read more: Holt eyes faster timeline as clinic opening set for 2027
The clinic remains under renovation.
The progress tracker said work on the clinic space is progressing well and remains on track with its original timeline of an “early 2027 opening.”
Premier Susan Holt told The Courier on Sept. 24 there have been some delays with HVAC equipment that is on back order.
When asked whether people could expect an opening in January 2027: ‘That’s the goal.’ “
According to the report, Martin made 11 recommendations to the Department of Health as part of the audit.
The Courier reached out to the Department of Health for comment but did not receive a response by deadline. The department did agree with all 11 recommendations, according to Martin’s report.
— with files from Brian Owens.
