Statement from CEO Donna Duncan
Donna Duncan released the following statement as a response to the article “Ontario Health CEO admits system is under ‘tremendous strain’ and talks about 5 challenges rocking hospitals” (Toronto Star, August 2, 2022):
“Addressing the crisis facing Ontario’s health care system requires a coordinated, system-wide response. All health sectors, including long-term care, are facing severe workforce shortages and we are all looking to hire from the same pool of available health professionals. It is critical that we work together – hospitals, long-term care, home care, primary care, and community care – to implement innovative localized solutions to support communities in crisis.
At the provincial level, policy and regulatory changes that would benefit all health sectors include fast-tracking internationally trained nurses, ensuring professionals can work to their full scope of practice in every health care environment, reducing red tape to maximize the hours that go towards care, and innovating our training programs to leverage train-in-place models. While immigration may provide some relief, this is a global crisis and we will urgently need to advance bolder, more innovative, and nimble approaches to rebuilding our health human resources in Ontario. OLTCA is committed to working collaboratively with leaders across government and our health sector partners to collectively address the health human resources crisis we are all facing.”