New Brunswick has introduced tens of collaborative care clinics in recent years, aimed at improving access and reducing the number of people waiting for a health-care provider in the province. Premier Susan Holt’s government set a goal to establish 30 such clinics by the end of 2028. With each new clinic announced, the province suggested thousands of New Brunswickers would come off the waitlist by being “attached” to health-care providers. But auditor general Paul Martin says the Department of Health can’t demonstrate the clinics are actually improving access where it is needed most. “The department has reported progress, but incomplete and inaccurate information makes it difficult to determine the model’s actual impact,” he says in a news release on Tuesday. In her State of the Province address in January, Holt revealed the waitlist for a primary care provider or collaborative care clinic actually grew by 40,000 people in 2025, despite the opening of 11 clinics that year. At the time, she reported the waitlist sat at around 238,000 people. Martin’s audit examined 14 clinics announced between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026, and found an impractical approach to how and where they were rolled out. Specifically, the audit finds clinic expansion was not guided by documented provincial assessment of community need, performance monitoring was not applied consistently, and there were significant gaps in reported patient attachment data. Martin finds these conditions limited the department’s ability to assess results. “Stronger monitoring and accurate public reporting are essential as additional resources are committed,” he says. “The department could not determine whether new collaborative care clinics had removed patients from the provincial wait-list, and Martin reported that the wait-list data was inaccurate and unreliable,” reads the news release. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
