Dear Staff, Professional Staff, Learners, Volunteers, Researchers, and Board members — greetings, boozhoo, and bonjour.
I know you are all very busy, so I will try to be efficient with this month’s blog.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
First and foremost, I am sure you have seen some of our other communications regarding today being the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It’s a day that honours the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. I was moved today when I saw so many people wearing orange shirts, since September 30th is also Orange Shirt Day — an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day based on the experience of Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation. On her first day of school, she arrived dressed in a new orange shirt, which was taken from her. It is now a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
I want to encourage everyone to take a few moments today to reflect on the meaning of this day and how people in our region have been, and continue to be, impacted. The Federal Government has some resources to help this process: https://bit.ly/BeginYourLearningJourney
I would also like to speak to our commitment to reflection, improvement and change across our Health Sciences Centre and Health Research Institute. Through our Strategic Plan engagement, we have often spoken about the need and opportunity to make our organization a more safe and welcoming environment for Indigenous people. The work and improvements therein will be directed through our Strategic Plan and embedded in the work we do.
Together, it is all of our responsibility and I look forward to working with our partners, communities and all of our people to make improvements for the future.
Strategic Planning
Despite the pressures and volume on the Hospital, we continue to work forward on the Strategic Plan. We are working to set aspirational goals for our strategic areas of focus and working on the actions and initiatives necessary to achieve our goals. In addition, to ensure we are getting this right, we are working on further engagement throughout the process. We are planning on further key engagement activities through October with a final plan expected to be brought forward to our respective Boards of Directors in November of this year.
COVID-19
As we know, this latest phase of COVID-19 has really turned into a pandemic of the unvaccinated as they represent most hospitalized cases in Ontario. With that said, I want to say how incredibly proud I am that Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC)/Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute (TBRHRI), is at an almost 95% vaccination rate with two doses. This is an incredible achievement. I would also like to take the opportunity to strongly encourage those who have not been vaccinated to reconsider. We know that vaccination is the best way to fight COVID-19 and we want you to stay healthy.
Meanwhile, as we are following the advice of the Science Table – we are training and preparing our staff and our organization in the event that we see an increase in COVID-19 admissions in the paediatric population (under age 12). Given the provincial modelling, we know that the fourth wave suggests an increase in paediatric cases. As such, we are readying ourselves accordingly. We are also closely monitoring community COVID-19 cases and our overall Assessment Centre volume. This week, we did see an increase in visits to TBRHSC’s COVID-19 Assessment Centre as we hit a peak in volume of 320 assessments on Monday, September 27th. We will continue to monitor all aspects of COVID-19 to ensure, as always, that we are ready to pivot and respond to the patient care needs of our community and region.
Ontario Health Visit
We had a recent visit from the President & CEO of Ontario Health, Matt Anderson. It is always beneficial to have one of our key provincial stakeholders visit us on site. This visit enabled us to profile our organization and our regional specialized services role – while demonstrating our current and ongoing funding needs related to COVID-19 recovery. In addition, we took the opportunity to identify the critical transformation and restoration work necessary post COVID-19 – and highlight opportunities in areas such as regional surgery and mental health. We also profiled the excellent work of the organization across many of our programs and services, highlighted several capital projects in development such as Cardiovascular Surgery (CVS), Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/Linac, and Mental Health-Emergency Department (MH-ED), while working to support innovation and care options to transform and improve the overall patient experience.
Final Thoughts
As I have updated you over the months, we have been undergoing some organizational changes aimed at aligning our structure with our work on our strategic plan. This is critical to ensuring we achieve our strategic goals and priorities. With that in mind, some of you may have seen our posting for an Executive Vice-President (EVP), Communications, and Corporate Relations. This position will serve as an integral member of the Senior Leadership Council (SLC) and be responsible for critical areas like Stakeholder Relations, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Government Relations, and Communications. As we move forward, we will need to continue our journey to connect our Strategy and Structure going forward to ensure optimal organizational effectiveness, while aligning and ensuring the delivery of our new strategic priorities.
Please allow me to conclude this blog by simply saying thank you. I feel like I can’t say it enough. After 18 months, I know many of you are tired and that is understandable. Our communities have depended on you to be there for them, and you have risen to the challenge time and time again. Knowing you have families of your own to worry about and care for makes your service to this region greater than the average person can even fathom. Thank you, sincerely.
As always, I welcome comments on this blog or any other matter. You can reach me at: crockerelr@tbh.net
