The New Brunswick Medical Society is calling on Horizon Health and the Department of Health to cancel the virtual care service being tested at two rural emergency departments.
The professional association, which represents more than 2,000 physicians, argues that Horizon’s contract with Teladoc Health Canada is a misuse of nearly $866,000 in a time of “crisis,” and warns that it will lead to more small ERs closing.
The medical society worries small and rural ERs will have an even harder time recruiting doctors if they can sign up to be on-call virtually to see the least-critical patients for the same pay as doctors who work full time on site and see all levels all levels of patients. (Horizon Health Network/Facebook)
It sounds like there are a lot of complaints about the trial, but this one stood out to me:
“We do not understand why our public authorities are contracting out these services to a … private sector human resource agency, at a premium to the taxpayer, when there was a range of less costly and more effective solutions to increase access to care available to them,”
As someone who used the services, I appreciated getting out of the ER faster. I’m sympathetic to the arguments that it’s a net negative, however.
