When you are in the thick of managing through a crisis, there are notable breaks in the system that surface that you realize need to be fixed to avoid further crises.
Everyone in Canada knows right now, our health care system is in crisis and crumbling. With two of my clients in the thick of this crisis, I’m constantly watching and learning, reading their patient stories and since March, working with them to try to amplify their voice and their stories. It is a privilege to be working with real leaders in healthcare, brilliant physicians and surgeons who are working literally to the bone every day in British Columbia’s hospitals. Their main objective in life is to help people. To fix people’s health problems. What could be more important than that? And as a society, people’s health and healthcare delivery should be government’s number one priority.
In July, I participated in a health forum led by Dr. Katharine Smart (past president of the Canadian Medical Association) and other notable health leaders in the country. It was fascinating. Health leaders working on the frontlines from across Canada discussing the issues and sharing their thoughts on solutions. There are many stories in the media right now discussing possible solutions, and this needs to continue, because right now, inside this mammoth health care crisis is the opportunity for change.
Obviously fixing the crisis is extremely complex and the issues are massive. Having worked with the British Columbia Orthopaedic Association for the past few months, we’ve learned there are patients in the province waiting two years or more for surgery. There are thousands of people waiting for orthopaedic surgeries in B.C. While they wait for knee surgery, joint replacements, back surgery – their health deteriorates. Due to waiting for surgery, patients show up to hospitals sicker, and there is a gigantic backlog of each person’s care that needs to be caught up on.
Dr. Cassandra Lane Dielwart, Orthopaedic Surgeon in Kelowna and president of the BC Orthopaedic Association, has reached out to BC Health Minister Adrian Dix outlining the issues she and her colleagues are seeing in their hospitals with two letters with requests to meet. She received one response from an Assistant to the Deputy Health Minister and after further correspondence with requests to meet, there has been no response at all.
https://bcoa.ca/news-events/news-from-bcoa/
The surgery waitlists and mammoth issues in BC hospitals continues to grow…
I recently met with a surgeon who treats cancer patients. He explained to me how exhausted he and his colleagues are. There is simply not enough staff to serve patients and they see no hope in sight.
We know the health care crisis is everywhere. Here are some takeaways from the July health forum with the Canadian Medical Association:
There is a mental health tsunami left behind as a result of COVID 19.
Need to tackle health care worker burn out. Morale is extremely low.
Not enough nurses.
Health care system not working as a system. There is no cohesiveness.
No Data on what is working and what is not. Way behind any other industry when it comes to data.
Opportunities and Recommended Solutions:
Need mental health and community care support system.
Need to clear the backlog of surgeries by utilizing stand-alone surgical centres. (This is hugely controversial because public vs. private but there needs to be a way to make it work. Thousands of people waiting months and months for surgery and their health continues to deteriorate at what cost to the system?)
Research & Evaluation (DATA) needed NOW to tell us how to improve delivery of health care. We need leadership collecting workforce data. Use AI to determine solutions. Need to spend on research to inform solutions.
Test different models of care. Share results with other hospitals. Collaborate.
Make it a system – hospitals working together.
Streamline the process for health professionals who have immigrated to Canada to be hired for health-care jobs.
Increase medical school enrolment (this I find particularly interesting having two young adult sons and their many friends who could be entering medicine. How are government and schools enticing young people to go into medicine? I can tell you they are not doing enough.)
There is no shortage of stories in the media about the health care crisis. Below are points from a recent CTV story outlining some really important facts such as:
- Canada’s current health-care system was designed in the 1960s
- There are solutions, but they will require leadership and collaboration between all levels of government, working collaboratively with health professionals.
- The first step to “stop the bleeding” of the system is to get the government on the same page as healthcare professionals.
- Dr. Katharine Smart says, “There are many of us at the table with solutions. We are ready to do the work. But we need our politicians to acknowledge the problem.”
Back to the title of this blog post: Inside Every Crisis is an Opportunity. Now is the time and opportunity for government federally and provincially to meet with our health care leaders working on the front lines to find solutions. (See bullet points above!) Thousands upon thousands of people waiting for surgery and care in this country are depending on it.