Primary care is becoming increasingly difficult for New Brunswickers to access, according to a newly released report from the New Brunswick Health Council.

Data from the report shows that there was a 14 per cent decline in citizens who reported having a permanent primary care provider between 2017 and 2023.

NB Health Council CEO Stéphane Robichaud attributes it to several factors.

“I think it’s a combination of demographics, first. Doctors — we’ve known this was coming — are aging, there are retirements,” he said on Tuesday.

“There’s also immigration. Immigration has impacted New Brunswick in a way that’s not similar to previous years.”

He said primary care providers are saying cases are often more complicated because one in four New Brunswickers have three or more chronic conditions.

NB Medical Society president Dr. Paula Keating, a family physician based in Miramichi, says many patients are losing their family doctor either to retirement or their doctor choosing to work in a hospital setting.

“My office gets calls daily to see if myself or other physicians I know can take on those patients,” she says.

She said she directs those patients to NB Health Link, a program run by Medavie that allows patients without a family doctor to access primary care.

There are more than 59,000 people registered with the program, and just over 34,000 people on the waitlist, according to Medavie spokesperson Eric Robichaud.

Both those who are registered and those on the NB Health Link waitlist are also on a waiting list to be matched with a permanent primary care physician.

She said the medical society is advocating for more investment into family medicine, as well as the use of teams-based primary care, where patients see a different health-care worker for different issues rather than seeing their family doctor as a first point of contact each time.

The NB Health Council is also recommending this approach.

“Team models can look different but the key element is that every New Brunswicker would be associated to a service provision centre,” Robichaud said.

“Then, depending on your needs, you’re dealing with the appropriate professional.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told Global News on Tuesday that teams-based care is a key part of their primary health-care action plan released in May.

“That action plan provides a number of forward-looking initiatives that will transform how primary care is delivered in the province, with a particular focus on the benefits of collaborative or team-based practices,” the e-mailed statement read.

Some teams-based care clinics have already opened in the province, such as one in Edmunston run by Vitalité Health Network.

Keating said she heard positive comments from doctors working in the clinic who said it allowed them to take on more patients.

She wants to see more clinics open quickly.

“We can’t have any more delays in this. Things need to happen now. Because we’re seeing the numbers grow every week for unattached patients,” Keating said.