Horizon asks the public to consider options before presenting to an Emergency Department

HORIZON – Horizon Health Network is asking the public to consider their health care options before presenting to an Emergency Department.

Horizon’s Emergency Departments are experiencing large volumes of patients, and our priority is to care for trauma and critical care patients. Patients with non-urgent medical issues may experience long wait times.

We encourage the public to visit SoWhyWait.ca to help choose the best option for care, such as a pharmacist, primary health care provider, after-hours clinic, virtual care (such as eVisitNB.ca), Tele-Care 811, or the Emergency Department. This includes patients who are experiencing symptoms of a respiratory infection.

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please call 911 or proceed to your local Emergency Department. Emergency, critical, and urgent cases will always be treated as quickly as possible.

We would also like to remind the public that patients, social visitors, and designated support persons (DSPs) must continue to self-screen for symptoms of COVID-19 and other respiratory illness prior to entering a Horizon facility. Social visitors with new onset symptoms of a respiratory infection in the past 10 days or those who have tested positive in the last 10 days are not permitted to visit. DSPs with new symptoms of a respiratory infection in the past 10 days or those who have tested positive in the last 10 days would fail screening and are asked not to enter and to contact the nursing unit for further direction.

Everyone who enters our facilities must perform proper hand hygiene (clean their hands) regularly and practice physical distancing from others. 

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