N.B. pilot project expects to increase access to primary health care.

FREDERICTON -- A $1.6 million, two-year collaborative practice project which aims to improve access to primary health care services was announced jointly by Health and Wellness Minister Elvy Robichaud and Dr. Paul Cloutier, President of the New Brunswick Medical Society.

The pilot project is expected to increase patient access by adding the services of nurses and nurse practitioners to physicians' offices. The nurse or nurse practitioner will be able to see additional patients and follow up with chronic patients, which will free up the physician's time to see more new and complex patients.

A total of five office sites, three in Edmundston, one in Bathurst and one in Moncton, have been selected to pilot the joint venture. Four offices began the project in February 2004, and the fifth is set to begin in late March. It will continue until March 31, 2006.

Cloutier said that physicians fully support initiatives like this one that are aimed at increasing access to family doctors' offices. "Community-based family doctors' offices are the backbone of the primary care system, and it makes sense to build on that foundation," he said.

The project is part of the current contract agreement between the Province and the Medical Society. It represents a shared commitment to improve patients' access to primary care services, and to shorten the time existing patients must wait to see their doctor. 506-453-2536