New Brunswick's language rights watchdog has received three complaints alleging a lack of access to care in French since the new Virtual Care N.B. service launched in June.
Official languages watchdog investigates complaints against Virtual Care N.B.
Savannah Awde · CBC News
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New Brunswick's health minister acknowledged Wednesday the province's new virtual care system isn't meeting expectations for service in both official languages.
That comes as the language rights watchdog investigates three complaints against Virtual Care N.B. that allege a lack of access to care in French.
There have been three complaints since the service launched in June to replace eVisitNB — two last week and one in early July, said Ashley Beaudin, spokesperson for the official languages commissioner, Shirley MacLean.
She declined to comment further on the nature of the complaints, noting the investigations.
Health Minister John Dornan said Wednesday that he's aware of the issue and expects Foundever, the administrator of the service, to make improvements.
"One of our concerns about virtual care in New Brunswick was access to both official languages," Dornan said to reporters in Saint John.
"And with the advent of the new program Virtual Care N.B., we have not done as well as we wanted to do with bilingual access."
Dornan said government's expectation is that Foundever will provide service in both official languages, adding they will be evaluated "at regular intervals" to see if the situation is improving.
"People have called me and said, 'You know what, I just can't get French care,'" Dornan said.
Over the past week, the minister said, two more francophone nurse practitioners were hired — and he hopes to see that continue.
"They've been in operation for two months now, so they did not have at the start as many bilingual people as we would have hoped," Dornan said.
"Foundever has committed to providing this. We wish it could have been sooner, but it's going to happen."
Dornan said the province isn't looking at providing translation services on the platform while that hiring takes place.
He didn't have an exact number when asked on Wednesdat but said "very few" nurse practitioners currently with Virtual Care N.B. are bilingual.
On Wednesday morning, there were just two days available, Aug. 27 and 28, to book an appointment in French. A week earlier, no French appointments were available.
Those seeking an English-language appointment on Wednesday won't be able to see a care provider until Sept. 1 — but appointments are available every day after that until Sept. 18.
WATCH | ‘We have not done as well as we wanted,’ minister says: Official languages watchdog investigating Virtual Care N.B. August 20| Duration 2:06
New Brunswick-based eVisitNB, the previous service provider, has also faced official languages complaints.
The province previously told CBC News that the ability to provide service in both official languages was part of the process for selecting Foundever as the new virtual care provider.
Dornan said 11 companies applied during the request for proposals process, and all were ranked using a pre-determined scoring system.
He said Foundever, which already operated New Brunswick's Tele-Care 811 system, ranked highest.
'New Brunswickers are suffering'
Bill Hogan, a Progressive Conservative MLA and the party's health critic, said bilingual service should have been sorted out before the contract was awarded.
He's concerned that barriers to accessing virtual care will only lead to more traffic in emergency rooms that are already stretched thin.
"New Brunswickers are the ones that are paying the price for this," Hogan said. "New Brunswickers are suffering because they can't get a virtual, a virtual appointment through this service."
"We need to care about the health of New Brunswickers, and driving them into the emergency rooms is not a benefit for anybody."
Green Party Leader David Coon said he's regularly getting calls about the "hardship" people are facing without reliable access to virtual care.
"There are real victims here," Coon said in an interview. "People who are not getting the health care that they were getting through [eVisitNB] now aren't getting any.
"That is a big problem, and the minister has a lot to account for."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Savannah Awde is a reporter with CBC New Brunswick. You can contact her with story ideas at savannah.awde@cbc.ca.
With files from Nipun Tiwari and Erica Butler
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