Edmundston nursing home deal reached

A dispute about physician staffing levels at a new nursing home in Edmundston has been resolved, clearing the way for the nursing home to open soon.

Doctors and the Department of Health were at odds over how many hours physicians would be needed to cover the nursing home and that was preventing the nursing home from opening.

The department and physicians reached a compromise on the number of sessional hours provided by physicians each week.

Health Minister VictorBoudreaureleased a statement on Sunday, stating an agreement has been reached to settle the dispute.

"It's very unfortunate the physicians used 180 senior citizens as pawns in this matter," saidBoudreau.

Doctors said theDomaine des Batisseurs should be covered by two on-call doctors per week and 18 hours of rounds.

The Department of Health said one doctor and 12 hours of rounds would be sufficient.

Boudreau said in a statement that "on an exceptional basis," theDepartment of Social Development will fund a second on-call rotation of local physicians.

"This second on-call rotation will be in place until a revised approach to providing on-call services to nursing homes is developed, which is expected within the next 12 months," Boudreau said.