Quote:
Originally Posted by mylesmalley
Is part of the issue here that Vitalité has one major hospital but Horizon operates three? I have no idea how their respective budgets work and doubtless there is politics, but when looking at capital infrastructure spending Horizon has to share the love.
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This is unquestionably true. The CHU Dumont only really has the Chaleur Regional Hospital as a competitor in the Vitalite Network, but there is no question that the Dumont is the top dog (main teaching hospital for the francophone medical school, major oncology research centre etc).
Meanwhile, on the anglophone side, the love has to be spread amongst three different major hospitals, while also not forgetting the URVH in Waterville and the Miramichi Regional Hospital. The SJRH in Saint John is the top dog because of the affiliated medical school down there. The Moncton Hospital traditionally has been the #2 hospital in the province, but at least in terms of prestige, we now seem to be #3 (behind the Dumont), with the Chalmers Hospital in Freddy increasingly nipping at our heels.
This is frustrating and demoralizing to those of us who work at the Moncton Hospital. In reality, we still have all the tertiary care services at the hospital that we always have had (neurosurgery, medical oncology, adolescent psychiatry, neonatal intensive care) and still have major concentrations in trauma/emergency medicine, orthopaedics, interventional radiology, obstetrical care etc, and we remain larger and busier than the GDH, but we seem to be sliding into senescence. It is increasingly difficult to acquire new (or even replacement) equipment, any hospital expansion plans are either shelved or if they are approved, tend to be much less expansive than they should be (example - the new oncology wing does not have any office space for the oncologists).
The Moncton Hospital in many ways is still #2 in the province, but it is not difficult looking 10-15 years down the road and seeing us being #4 instead.