Hello, Boozhou, Bonjour, and happy New Year to each of you.

I would like to begin this month’s blog by acknowledging your efforts in serving our communities over the extremely busy holiday season where we experienced significant surges of hospital activity including a paediatric surge greater than 150% of our care capacity. The innovation and creativity of our staff combined with solid surge planning meant we were able to manage care needs over a difficult period. At a time when most units and departments are working short-staffed, you were flexible in pivoting fast and working collaboratively to manage care and expectations. Thank you again for all your continued hard work and innovative approach to providing the best possible health care to the people of Northwestern Ontario.

To that end, we know as a hospital and as an entire sector in Ontario that this is not sustainable for you. Hospitals across the province are reporting significant vacancy rates of over 10%. Some have moved to some stop-gap measures like using more agency and temporary staffing while paying premiums to recruit / incentivize shifts – but, again, it’s not sustainable. The fact is the systemic challenges our health care system faces are decades in the making and won’t be resolved quickly. But the change has to start now.

While progress is often slow and sometimes hard to see, please know we are working with leaders to come up with strategies and innovations to do things differently – which includes having different people in different support roles to manage the workload. We are also developing flexible work and scheduling processes using the UKG scheduler as one tool. We are also trying to create improved opportunities for professional development and invest in improved support systems for staff with a team approach to care. 

On a broader note, we are in regular and intensive conversations with our partners in health, education, and other provincial partners to address opportunities to make short, medium and long term shifts to address the challenges and embrace opportunities. And regionally, we are working with partners across Northwestern Ontario to advocate for incentives related to recruitment and retention to support all health care workers. 

On the education front, we are collaborating with our partners in education – recognizing the changes needed in enrollment, programming and access across the Northwest. This includes striving to increase seats in schools, provide flexible and innovative educational delivery options, and have methods to make health care careers more appealing while having intake / seats reserved for Northwestern Ontario residents in return for staying in the north.

In our meetings with leaders from the Ontario Hospital Association, the Ministry of Health, and Ontario Health, we will continue requesting prioritization of provincial programs to ensure equity for our region as everything from our demographics to geographic challenges are distinctive and create unique pressures on providers.

There is good news – we are optimistic that as a system, our collective efforts will support, stabilize and enhance our health care system and the overall staff experience.

I’d like to wrap up by thanking you again for your endurance, compassion and professionalism as we continue to grapple with these historical challenges. Please know we are doing everything in our power to address these challenges.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have comments on this blog or connect with me for any other matter. You can reach me at: rhonda.ellacott@tbh.net.