Horizon Health Network and the Town of Saint Andrews have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the Wellness Centre located in the W.C. O’Neill Arena Complex.
The Wellness Centre is a medical clinic that is given space for free by the town to operate and has several doctors with active practices. The agreement is for renovations to the space for the phlebotomy laboratory and what the council said is three additional doctors.
“In appreciation of the efforts of the council, including the investments in the current facility, Horizon Health Network (HHN) has agreed to fund the renovations now needed to allow for extra service providers,” said Coun. Lee Heenan, reading background on the motion.
Heenan said they will provide the funding for the renovation in exchange for not charging rent for a five-year period. The cost of the renovations are between $250,000 and $300,000.
The council moved to a closed session under section 68(1)c of the Local Governance Act. Council voted to approve the MOU after returning to an open session.
Dr. Julie Levesque-Taylor, one of those physicians, decided she wanted to bring the collaborative care model to the town – something she had previous experience with in Manitoba.
“I noticed when I first got here that it’s just not sustainable, or it’s sustainable on a very small scale,” she said. “We took on patients, and people came in, they called, they begged, they pleaded, (and) our staff listened … and then there came the heartbreaking moment where we [had] to start saying no.”
She, alongside Dr. Brian Peer, operate their practice out of that space. Coun. Annette Harland is the manager for her husband, Dr. Peer’s, practice.
Levesque-Taylor aims to take 400 people off the waitlist with the area code E5B. In August, Premier Susan Holt and Health Minister Dr. John Dornan came to visit the clinic.
Holt told The Courier during a monthly address on Oct. 20 that the provincial government is working closely with the Saint Andrews team.
“We do have a good partnership in place,” she said. “[We] are going to continue working with them to do more and give them the tools they need to serve more of their neighbours.”
Susan Neal, HHN director of primary care in the Saint John region, said the regional health authority is continuing to work to establish family health teams across the province.
In her statement, Neal did not address questions about who the doctors were or when they would be officially working at the clinic – nor did she confirm Saint Andrews will be part of the 2025 commitment.
“Work is underway in Saint Andrews to explore opportunities that support recruitment and retention of health care professionals, including physicians, to improve access to care for residents,” she said. “Horizon is working with provincial and local governments and local primary care physicians to plan for the expansion of health services and resources in the community in the coming months.”
But Saint Andrews wasn’t originally on the 2025 list, however, St. Stephen was. The clinic currently operates on the third floor of the Charlotte County Hospital (CCH).
Blacks Harbour is slated to be part of the commitment for 2026, which Holt said is well underway.
Holt said the government feels very close to announcing the clinic, promising before the end of the calendar year in just two months – and had visited the clinic back in August as well.
“I was down there visiting with the team a number of months ago because we were at the point of site selection and identifying where the clinic would go [so] that we could get some of those practitioners out of the hospital and into the kind of space they need with the additional resources they need and then that frees up the space in the hospital that is desperately needed,” she said.
“We’re going to deliver on that.”
The Department of Health did not respond directly to questions about the details shared by the municipality nor did it confirm Saint Andrews would be added to the list of collaborative care clinics for 2025.
In a statement, Health Minister John Dornan reiterated the government’s commitment to the 30 clinics promised during the election.
“There will be more collaborative care clinic announcements between now and the end of the calendar year. We are looking forward to finalizing details to share with New Brunswickers in the coming weeks.”
