A new president set to take over at Hamilton’s top hospital network admits recruitment of new health-care professionals will be ‘a big priority’ at the beginning of her term as continuing patient pressures linger as a residual of the pandemic.
Tracey MacArthur, who will replace the retiring Rob MacIsaac as president and CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) on April 15th, says “nothing is off the table” in terms of ideas the outlet will use to bring talent to the city, even promotion of ‘Hamilton’s great balance’ which she says offers an ideal urban environment and outdoor activities.
“So that certainly is a big priority to me,” MacArthur said.
“It’s a wonderful area to live and … wonderful place to work for professionals, then there’s a partnership with McMaster, there’s the opportunity to practice in all different parts of medicine.”
As of early March, HHS reported it had around 1,300 total vacancies, about seven per cent of their total workforce, which included full-time, temporary, casual, and part-time positions.
About 400 of those were nursing vacancies.
The numbers represent ongoing challenges across Ontario networks highlighted by an Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) study last August that suggested Hamilton’s hospitals needed some 3,300 new staffers to meet patient needs.
A year ago, the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO) also underscored the need for nurses and personal support workers in particular estimating some 87,000 would be needed across all of the province’s networks to return to pre-pandemic vacancy rates and meet government expansion commitments.
HHS been chipping away at its vacancies and trying to stay on top of a revolving door, having hired 2,967 new staff last year, including 869 new nurses.
However, the network still struggles with patient care as occupancy rates that have still not returned to pre-COVID levels remained at 100 per cent or higher at all four of its facilities.
In January, HHS had an average of 2,039 visits per week to adult emergency departments, up from the 1,870 reported in January 2023.
Meanwhile, McMaster Children’s Hospital saw average visits per week move to 906 compared to the 777 seen in the same month last year.
In addition to out-of-region recruitment, MacArthur says encouraging the development of future doctors and nurses through partnerships with local learning facilities is something they hope to get some supplementary help to ease the occupancy rates.
“We have a very, very strong strategic partnership with MacMaster University (and) with Mohawk (college) who play a lead role in training new physicians and other disciplines,” she said.
“So that is a connection that is already strong but it is a huge priority, for me, to continue to expand upon.”
MacArthur comes to HHS following an 11-year stint at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) holding senior roles including CEO, COO, Vice President of Clinical Operations and Chief Information Officer.
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