More than doctors and nurses, says Health P.E.I. CEO of staffing problems

The biggest issue facing Health P.E.I. is staffing, says the organization's CEO. 

Staffing was one of many topics up for discussion at the 11th Annual General Meeting for Health P.E.I. Wednesday in Summerside.

CEO Dr. Michael Gardam said it's not just about hiring doctors and nurses, but also staff who could support them and make their jobs easier.

"The biggest challenge would be staffing, and it's both, you know, hiring people to fill positions, but it's also — and that's the point I really made in the meeting — it's also to support our staff so they feel valued," he said.

He said there are about 700 job vacancies, some positions full time and others part time. Gardam hopes to do a better job actually retaining staff. The recent partnership between UPEI and Memorial University to allow people to continue studies in the medical field is a good step forward, but if they can't get hired quickly, Gardam said, they could go elsewhere.

"I'm not responsible for actually hiring staff — that's done by the Department of Health and Wellness — but I am responsible for keeping them. And so I see a big part of my role over the next few years is making sure that our staff feel heard, they feel valued, and they feel supported in the workplace."

The way hiring works is Health P.E.I. identifies a need. The need is expressed to the Department of Health, which would bring back names of potential candidates. Health P.E.I. then decides if the person is a good fit.

Gardam said he's not asking to change how the system works, but said it has to work more quickly.

The money is there to hire people; it's a matter of attracting the right ones, Gardam said.

Demoralizing stories

Another issue Gardam highlighted was with communication, both within the organization and to the public.

He said when he came to work with Health P.E.I. in April he was surprised there was no intranet, or internal website staff could communicate on and see things like announcements and policies.

"We have to have the right team around us to actually make those things happen and right now we don't have enough people to do that," he said.

"A lot of wonderful things ... happen at Health P.E.I., but you never hear about them."

People often hear issues with Health P.E.I. brought up in the legislature, Gardam said.

"Those are the stories that come forward, and it's honestly demoralizing to people," he said.

"It's very important that we have a strong comms team that can get those stories out so people hear all the various things we're doing."

Stuck in the 1980s

The province needs to innovate in its health care delivery, said Gadman, and has already fallen behind in some areas.

The province has the lowest budget for home care in Canada.

"We're stuck in the 1980s a little bit. We're very focused on hospitals, we are very focused on a doctor-centric model," he said. 

"We need to move away from thinking everybody needs a hospital bed, that everybody needs long-term care. We need to focus on caring for people in the home."

Virtual meetings have helped to increase access to some healthcare services. According to the Health P.E.I. Annual Report, the wait time to see a psychiatrist went from about 57 days to 15.

"I commented on programs such as Skip the Waiting Room which allowed people to book their COVID vaccines. We could be using that for your CT scan," he said.

One of those innovations is the work to roll out an electronic medical record network across the province.

"There's a gazillion reasons why paper charts are bad. I can hand that to the wrong person, I can leave that around. There is no doubt electronic health records are the way of the future," he said.

Gardam has compared his job in the past to a game of whack-a-mole. He said the moles are still being whacked, but he is hoping Health P.E.I. is able to figure out some more long-term solutions to problems over the next year.