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After initially raising questions about the plan, Premier Susan Holt has given her stamp of approval to a new company taking over New Brunswick’ virtual primary care system in April.
Controversy erupted earlier this month after the province opted to have Luxembourg-based Foundever take over the virtual care system from eVisitNB, a company based in Woodstock.
“I am still looking at this one and asking questions,” Holt said in a Facebook comment at the time.
She told CBC News on Thursday those questions have now been resolved.
“I went through with the team every step of the RFP process,” the premier said in an interview in Shippagan.
The Progressive Conservative opposition accused Holt of not putting New Brunswick first by issuing a request for proposals rather than renewing eVisitNB’s contract.
The premier said Foundever’s own connection to New Brunswick can be traced back through a couple of corporate takeovers to Clinidata, a homegrown startup that began running the provincial 811 Telecare program in 1997.
Foundever has 150 employees in New Brunswick.
Holt said this, and the possibility of a partnership between Foundever and eVisitNB, left her “convinced this is the best interests of New Brunswickers.”
The CEO of the Vitalité Health Network told the legislature’s public accounts committee on Thursday that the health authority would have been able to operate the service without the province having to go with an outside private supplier.
France Desrosiers said about 20 per cent of consults by Vitalité’s family health teams are virtual.
“We have the capacity to offer the entire service and at a lower cost,” she said. “No one asked us if we could do it.”
The contract with Foundever had not been signed as of earlier this week.
The switchover from eVisitNB to Foundever is set for April 1.
Holt said Thursday there may be an opportunity for the two companies to “develop a partnership and work together” but she did not elaborate.
EVisitNB CEO Dr. Hanif Chatur has not made himself available to CBC News for interviews and Foundever did not respond to an interview request.
Chatur said in an email statement this week that he was disappointed the province opted for Foundever and surprised by its explanation that the Luxembourg company’s bid was “stronger” on the province’s desire for greater integration with other health services.
“At no point did the Government of New Brunswick indicate that eVisitNB was failing to address its concerns,” he wrote.
“We worked closely with the Department of Health to resolve issues as they came up and delivered measurable results.”
He said eVisitNB completed more than one million virtual visits in the last year, serving 325,000 patients with more than 165 nurse practitioners.
