In a rare and candid interview, head of agency that oversees health system says “we’re in a different place” as COVID has worsened chronic problems.
Back when he was CEO of Lakeridge Health — a busy, five-hospital system in Durham region — Matthew Anderson typically got up at 5 a.m. to start solving the most pressing problems of the day.That extra workday hour is just the smallest indicator of the beleaguered state of the province’s health system.
Anderson, a seasoned health system leader, took on his role at Ontario Health on Feb. 1, 2020, eight months after the “super agency” was formed to oversee health-care administration in the province. When announcing his hiring, In a wide-ranging interview, Anderson answered questions about a health system reaching a crisis point, and spoke to what Ontario Health — an agency formed to integrate a siloed system — is doing to address critical challenges.There are record-long waits, with reports of ill and injured patients waiting days in ERs for a hospital bed. In May, the average wait for a patient admitted to hospital was 20 hours. That has increased from about 14 hours back in 2012.
This year, the number of shifts that can’t be filled by a staff physician is far higher than in previous years, he says. And there are fewer doctors willing to take on additional shifts. This has led, he says, to a situation where “our supply has gone down as our demand has gone up considerably.” A further concern with crowded emergency departments is that they reveal pressure points in other places in the system, such as home-care supports for elderly residents, Anderson says.
In the short term, Anderson says a priority is to prevent more staff from leaving hospitals and he acknowledges those who remain — from doctors and nurses to guards and cleaners — are tired and burned out from pandemic care. “How do we start to bring them back into the health-care system? We’re having those conversations now.”
It became even more of a challenge after the province closed ward rooms in long-term care early in the pandemic to help prevent COVID spreading among residents, taking about 4,000 beds out of the system, he says. Anderson says Ontario Health, ministries and other agencies are working on two broad strategies: daily meetings among regional care providers to figure out how to safely move more individual patients, and finding ways to create more system capacity.
Currently, about 212,000 people are waiting for a scheduled surgery, up from 198,000 before the pandemic hit in January 2019, according to data provided by Ontario Health. And though it’s been five months since Ontario lifted the directive to pause elective surgeries during the winter Omicron wave, Anderson says many hospitals have not gotten back to pre-pandemic surgical volumes.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Some Quebec health workers sick with COVID-19 being asked back to work, union says\u0022It goes completely counter to what Public Health has been saying to the Quebec population for weeks.\u0022
Read more »
Some Quebec health workers sick with COVID-19 asked back to work: UnionSome Quebec health workers have been asked to report to work in recent days while suffering from serious symptoms of COVID\u002D19.
Read more »
South Korea develops nanotech tattoo as health monitoring deviceResearchers in Daejeon, South Korea, have developed an electronic tattoo ink made of liquid metal and carbon nanotubes that functions as a bioelectrode
Read more »
6 common barriers men face when seeking mental health supportThe outward effects of mental illness can often be dismissed as a sign of weakness or personal failure.
Read more »
Health Minister brushes off outrage over visa denials for AIDS conference in MontrealFederal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has brushed off outrage over visa denials for hundreds of delegates from low-income countries planning to attend the International AIDS Conference in Montreal
Read more »
Bonavista Peninsula Health Centre emergency department closed Aug. 2-3 | SaltWireExplore stories from Atlantic Canada.
Read more »