Andrew Williams, Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance CEO (Bob Montgomery photo)Andrew Williams, Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance CEO (Bob Montgomery photo)
Midwestern

Hospital CEO supporting plan to alleviate pressure

The CEO of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance applauds the announcement this week that the Provincial government is bringing in as many as 1,200 international nurses to help alleviate some of the pressure on hospitals in dealing with the pandemic.

Andrew Williams says it's a strategy that will help in the immediate short-term and believes it's a strategy that should continue to be used.

"We don't have enough people to fill the current roles that are vacant and so when we are recruiting, it's very competitive and that's a win-lose scenario, unfortunately, for the health system and we need to look at systems that prevent that from happening to the degree that it is," said Williams.

Williams points out that any hospital recruiting people now, unless they're recruiting right out of school, is taking staff away from another hospital.

"So, what we need this initial announcement to be followed up with is a very clear, long-term strategy that looks at, not only ways that we can continue to bring internationally-trained people into our system, but also make sure that we re-visit the system itself and look at what's the best use of the people we do have," added Williams.

Williams says coming out of the pandemic, health care providers and leaders have an obligation to learn from what's happened over the last couple of years and how they can strengthen their communities and their health systems.

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