Some N.B. patients waiting for long-term care bed move to top of waitlist – CTV
July 18, 2025
For the next month, hospital patients waiting for a long-term care bed in New Brunswick will move to the top of the waitlist as Horizon Health Network tries to ease overcrowding at four of its regional hospitals.
On Wednesday. New Brunswick’s Minister of Social Development Cindy Miles approved a request Horizon Health Network made the day before to temporarily grant Horizon “critical state admission prioritization status” at its hospitals in Fredericton, Saint John, Miramichi and Hartland.
The protocol allows the health network to prioritize patients who no longer need acute care but are still in hospital — known as Alternative Level of Care (ALC) patients — and place them into long-term care once a bed is freed up.
“We do have beds available across the province,” Miles told reporters. “The folks that are in hospital now are going to be prioritized for those beds.”
Miles says the next step is making sure they don’t end up in that same position.
“We want to give everyone the opportunity to be able to stay home as long as they can and not be waiting in hospital.”
