University Health Network CEO Kevin Smith spoke to the Star about nursing agencies, how the UHN’s two foundations stepped in during the pandemic, and his thoughts on the health-care privatization debate:
Despite the challenges facing Ontario’s health-care system more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the president and CEO of Toronto’s biggest hospital network remains remarkably optimistic.
Shoring up the province’s health-care system won’t be easy. Ontarians are worried about the possibility of an increasingly privatized system, and Queen’s Park’s attempt to free up hospital beds — Bill 7 — will allow for the transfer of elderly hospital patients to nursing homes not of their choosing.
But at the same time, we’re creating this huge population of patients who will need very specialized care for the rest of their lives. Historically, we haven’t built a system like that. People have had shorter life expectancies and haven’t had as many comorbid diseases. How will we manage to continue to care for those individuals, while meeting the needs of new patients and not generating adequate numbers of medical graduates to do the work?I find solace talking to colleagues.
We’re actively engaging in international recruitment and working with the Canadian government to fast-track candidates. We’re actively looking in refugee environments where those who are trained as nurses can be rapidly processed as refugees and then evaluated against North American practice standards. Concurrently, we’re also looking at extending some of the regulated providers.
I know there are those who feel very, very strongly that if there’s any profit margin in a business that it should be driven back into the system. I’m a bit more sanguine about that. If someone can provide outstanding service, really good outcomes, high quality of work, and they can do that within a private structure while meeting universal accessibility, I’m prepared to experiment with that.
Our foundations have been absolutely remarkable, no question about that. One of the most important things they were able to do was offer resources for hotel rooms when employees were ill, or for people who were really struggling with transportation. Many generous donors have stepped up.