New Brunswick health news — for the first time, the province can actually tell you how many people have a family doctor. As of September 18, 2026, a new count of New Brunswick Family Doctor attachment puts 619,354 residents with a primary care provider, and the Holt government has set a target of 85 per cent — 749,795 people — by the end of 2028.
By Maplestime Health Desk | Fredericton, New Brunswick | September 25, 2026
Sources: Government of New Brunswick (Sept 24 release) | Sept 24 Fredericton press conference | Last updated: September 25, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Premier Susan Holt and Health Minister John Dornan announced New Brunswick’s first-ever reliable measure of primary care attachment on September 24, 2026, built on Medicare billing data instead of polls and wait-list estimates.
- As of September 18, 619,354 New Brunswickers are attached to a primary care provider; the province’s target is 85 per cent (749,795) by the end of 2028.
- Zone-by-zone data shows Bathurst/Acadian Peninsula leading at 79 per cent attachment while Campbellton/North-East trails at 62.2 per cent.
- The province promises monthly updates and a public-facing patient attachment dashboard by the end of this year.
New Brunswick Family Doctor Count: Why This Measure Matters
Until now, patient attachment in New Brunswick has been estimated with a patchwork: public opinion polling, regional health-authority reports, and NB Health Link wait-list data. Nobody was working from the same page, and everyone had a number they liked. The new approach uses Medicare billing data directly — collected and validated since April 1 in partnership with the New Brunswick Medical Society, Nurse Practitioners of New Brunswick, and the Horizon and Vitalité health networks.
“This is about making sure we have the information we need to understand where we are today and where we need to go,” said Premier Susan Holt at the Fredericton announcement. “For the first time, we are using medicare data to track patient attachment. This gives us a clearer picture of who has a primary care provider and who is still waiting, so we can make better decisions about how to improve access to care.”
Attachment by Health Zone
The August zone-level breakdown shows how uneven access still is across the province:
| Health Zone | Attached | Attachment Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 — Moncton | 193,948 | 70.9% |
| Zone 2 — Saint John | 146,623 | 74.5% |
| Zone 3 — Fredericton | 127,928 | 63.3% |
| Zone 4 — Madawaska/North-West | 34,052 | 64.8% |
| Zone 5 — Campbellton/North-East | 16,537 | 62.2% |
| Zone 6 — Bathurst/Acadian Peninsula | 66,069 | 79.0% |
| Zone 7 — Miramichi | 32,233 | 70.8% |
Bathurst’s 79 per cent is the outlier worth studying. The province’s new physician services agreement — the first in Canada requiring family doctors to track and report patient attachment — is built to spread whatever is working there to places like Campbellton, where nearly four in ten residents remain unattached.
Monthly Updates and a Public Dashboard
The Holt government has committed to monthly updates on attachment numbers and a public-facing dashboard by the end of 2026. That matters more than it sounds: a public dashboard turns a press-release promise into something voters can check. Targets without sunlight tend to drift.
Maplestime will provide updates from New Brunswick’s primary care attachment reporting as monthly figures are released.
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Do you think a Medicare-data dashboard will actually move doctors to where patients are waiting — or is this just a prettier way of counting the same shortage? Tell us in the comments. And share this with every Canadian still on a doctor wait-list.
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