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= MP OPINION: OUR CHANGED WORLD PANDEMIC EXACERBATES EXISTING HEALTH-CARE PROBLEMS ACCELERATED RENEWAL OF INFRASTRUCTURE VITAL TO RECOVERY EFFORT, SAYS ROB MACISAAC falton Hills | Thursday, February 24, 2022 | = The IFP The impact of CO- VID-19 on Canadian health care is already evi- dent. The pandemic wid- ened pre-existing stress fractures in the sustaina- bility and resilience of our health-care system. The urgency to mend these fractures is becom- ing greater by the day. There are three broad categories of repairs de- serving swift attention: improving population health, modernizing health care infrastruc- bolstering health human resources. The negative impact on population health will be challenging to over- Postponed diag- amount of undiagnosed and untreated illness in oO et ROB MACISAAC frastructure is also vital to the recovery effort We co! 21st- century fealthn ob lems inside 100-year-old facilities. This was This risk increases ex- ponentially if hiring gaps persist — current and emerging — in our health-care workforce. Prior to 2019, vacan- cies for healt! work- during the pandemic as COVID-19 spread quickly through outdated hospi- tal wards built to meet in- fection standards from a bygone era. Ambulances lined up outside facili- bed disparities hose experienc- ing barriers to care may widen further. The prov- en collaboration between health system partners during the pandemic —to enact public health proto- cols, open testing centres and launch local vaccina- Column tion programs — is wor- thy of continued invest- ment by government as a means to safely and equi- tably recover the health newal of health-care in- vulnerable to future pan- demics. Readers’ Choice. theifp.ca Start nominating now at theifp.ca/readerschoice/ NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN It’s in your hands. make sure your favourite business or professional is nominated for the Georgetown Independent & Free Press 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards. The Georgetown Independent & Free Press Readers’ Choice Awards were created so you can tell us which local businesses and service providers are the best at what they do. Once the nominations close on March 31st, 2022, the nominees will be shortlisted and you will have the chance to vote for your favourite. Help make your favourite local business become a Georgetown Independent & Free Press THE INDEPENDENT FREEP READERS’ CHOICE /ARDS 2022 ers needed in growing hospital services were al- ready not being filled. As one example, surgical nursing shortages were evident across Canada. ‘his situation has worsened during the pan- demic, as workers retire or exit healthcare for oth- er reasons. It will be impossible to reduce the list of back- logged surgical proce: dures without the quired nursing staff. It will also be very challenging to increase other hospital services, rr expand capacity in long-term care and home care. More skilled workers were needed before the pandemic and the situa- tion now poses a critical risk to the sustainability of quality health care. These challenges ex- isted before COVID-19, but the risk of inaction has increased remark- ably. apis! has been the most peotth e nore mane from the pandemic. Rob Maclsaac is presi- dent and CEO of Hamil- ton Health Sciences anda member of Torstar's Ham- ilton Advisory Council.