In an open letter to New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt that’s been shared over 5,000 times on social media, Katarina Lekborg describes her grandmother’s experience being treated in a makeshift treatment unit located in the ambulance bay of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital. Lekborg describes herself as a registered nurse with eight years experience. She was accompanying her 88-year-old grandmother to the Chalmers Hospital after she became “acutely ill” last Friday. She writes that her family spent days trying to navigate the health-care system looking for help, and eventually, went to the hospital, where her grandmother ended up in what’s known as the medical transition unit (MTU). “There is no bathroom. No running water. No sink to wash hands. She eats inches from the commode she must use to relieve herself,” she writes. “There is no privacy, a tattered curtain with holes. No doors. The lights are relentless, on all day and all night. There are no windows, no way to tell the time of day. Paper thin ‘walls’; the noise never stops.” Lekborg writes that the unit should not exist, that it’s not a solution, but ‘concealment.’ CTV Atlantic has tried to reach Lekborg but has yet to hear back. Health Minister Dr. John Dornan was asked about the unit during a news conference Thursday morning, where he acknowledged the unit has been in use at the Chalmers Hospital for just over a year. He called it “care in a garage.” “It’s not ideal by any stretch, and that’s been pointed out. No bathrooms nearby, no privacy. Too much noise. No running water. That’s not optimal, and so what we need to do is be able to get those folks back into a proper emergency department,” he told reporters. Dornan said the unit was created to avoid people having to wait in the parking lot. “It was a response to having overcrowding, to have people not wait in parking lots or outside the hospitals, and it was meant to be a short-term solution,” he said. Premier Holt said she and Dornan been discussing the situation with Lekborg through texts and phone calls. She thanked Lekborg for coming forward and acknowledged the MTU should not be in use – but right now, there’s no other option. “The alternative is no care. Right now, if that MASH (mobile army surgical hospital) unit hadn’t been transitioned by Horizon, then people would be outside in the parking lot. They would be beyond the waiting room,” she told reporters. “So, it’s pretty hard to say that it’s better than nothing because it is terrible. But the alternative right now, is nothing. Is no care, no place to lie your head down. We’re really in a bad place.” Horizon Health network’s CEO Margaret Melanson said in a statement the unit houses 13 beds within curtained spaces. Patients are taken to washroom facilities in the emergency department, “We also have patients on stretchers in hallways, storage areas, and dining spaces. These conditions are not acceptable as a long-term reality, and they place significant pressure on our staff who work hard to provide quality care in circumstances that make it extraordinarily difficult,” she wrote in an email. Hospitals remain overcapacity, forcing patients to be treated in hallways, closets All five of Horizon Health’s regional hospitals are overcapacity, according to the health network’s data updated on Jan. 1. The Dr. Everett Chalmers hospital is at 109 per cent hospital occupancy. The hospital has 345 ‘funded’ beds, which are actual beds in proper treatment rooms and units, but there are about 30 unfunded beds being used right now – stretchers in makeshift rooms and hallways, like the MTU. Part of the reason for the overcrowding is the number of alternate-level-of-care patients having to be in hospital. Those patients are medically discharged but cannot safely return home because they need the extra support of a long-term care facility. Chandra MacBean, executive director of the Alzheimer Society of N.B., says 60 to 70 per cent of those patients suffer from dementia or Alzhemier’s. “They’re there because the person who was caring for them can no longer provide that care at home. They are stressed. They are tired. They didn’t have resources to support them. They don’t know how to manage responsive behaviours because they haven’t had that training,” she said. “So really it’s that ripple effect that drives people to the most expensive cost drivers in the system.” That’s why she’s hoping a new strategic plan on Alzheimer’s and dementia will better help those caregivers to allow people to stay home longer, and out of hospital. The plan was launched Thursday with the province committing $1 million to its rollout. Dornan said they’re also taking steps to move people out of hospital and into available long-term care beds in the near future. “Today we have people that are under the care of the public trustee. We’re asking the public trustee to help us get people from hospital - ALC status - to a nursing home. And they’re going to be helping us do that,” he said. The minister responsible for seniors, Lyne Chantal Boudreau, has also promised the province will be releasing its long-term care strategy within the first quarter the 2026. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
