Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackYear
When I looked at that number in your previous quote, I thought to myself, that can't be right. But, it can't also be right at $408,000.00. Then I'm back to my original shock of $408million. Then back to, seems about right. They are building $300,000.00 bathrooms on Main st Moncton, so $408million for 155 bed facility seems like a bargain.
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When I look at the size (155 beds) and the cost ($408M) of this facility, I envisage something along the lines of a smaller regional hospital (like the URVH in Waterville).
This however will not be a full fledged regional hospital. This facility will become the designated inpatient treatment facility for all federal institutions in Atlantic Canada, and will result in a much decreased reliance on the public hospitals in the region in terms of inmate care (for example, I suspect the prison wing at the Moncton Hospital to close). The main focus of this facility (I imagine) will be on inpatient psychiatric care. If I was to guess, I would say 120 of the beds would be psychiatric and 35 will be for general medicine.
This will be a coed facility, and some of the beds will be reserved for female inmates from Truro. The majority of the staffing will be psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and occupational therapists. I imagine the smaller medical wing will not be dealing with serious medical conditions. Anyone acutely ill would still be transferred to civilian regional hospitals. I expect most medical beds will be used for treatment of minor illnesses, convalescent care and palliative care.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackYear
I'm curious to know where they're going to get the staff? Is there not a massive shortage of nurses, doctors, specialists, etc in NB right now?
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You're talking about federal jobs with federal wages and federal pensions, so, yes, there will certainly be some parasitization from the public system, but it may not be as bad as you think.
In terms of medical staff, I could see as many as 6-8 psychiatrists on permanent staff, but psychiatrists are an international resource, and could be recruited from anywhere in the world. Most psychiatrists in NB now are not Canadian born. As for other medical staff, I think the medical wing would likely be staffed with another half dozen GPs and nurse practitioners. They could be recruited nationally, and might not impact too much on the Sackville Memorial, GDH or Moncton Hospitals. I seriously doubt that there will be any medical specialists (except psychiatrists) at the hospital. I suppose there could be a single general internist on site to deal with more complex medical problems, and perhaps serve as chief of staff.
I doubt there will be any ORs at the hospital, and really no ICU facilities. There might be a small advanced care ward, and a special procedures room. Only basic on site lab services would be available. Medical Imaging is a bit of an unknown. Right now, only basic x-ray services are available at Dorchester. This new prison hospital however would be a significant upgrade, and I could see ultrasound and maybe CT being installed. There would be no on site radiologist for interpretation. This would be done by teleradiology. Any radiological procedures (performed by a radiologist) would require transferring the patient to Moncton.
As there would also be no other on site medical specialists, clinics would mostly be done via telemedicine from Moncton, although it is possible some minor orthopaedic work under local anaesthesia could be performed on site in the special procedures room. Visits by medical specialists to the institution however would likely be pretty rare.
If I was to guess at overall staffing of this facility (including non medical support staff), I would estimate somewhere in the 400-500 range. This will be a significant increase over current staffing levels at the Shepody Healing Centre, and will be a significant boost to the economy in the Dorchester/Memramcook/Sackville region.
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