Health care is always a challenge and the demands on staff and the technology involved are always evolving.
Looking back on 2023, the president of Quinte Health says the work is in creating partnerships with local governments, Loyalist College and others was very important.
Stacey Daub says it’s critical to develop working relationships within the many communities served by Quinte Health’s four hospitals.
“The hospital cannot care for the community by itself. It needs to care in partnership, so the launch of the new strategy and the new partnerships have been phenomenal.”
Daub says the deepening partnership with Loyalist College will only improve local medical care in the future pointing to the college’s new four-year nursing degree program and a medical radiologist program starting in the fall of 2024.
While staffing at hospitals continues to be a challenge provincewide, Daub says Quinte Health has made a lot of new hires in the past year, especially frontline medical staff such as RNs and RPNs.
And there was good news for cancer care in the community as a fourth oncologist was brought on board.
While the focus of hospitals is always medical care, that care couldn’t be provided without ongoing attention and investment in new facilities and maintenance in the existing ones.
Daub says infrastructure work at all of the hospitals continued in 2023 but the big project is getting set to build a new Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital.
Daub says a Request for Proposals from general contractors was issued earlier this year.
“We’re waiting for the bidders to come back and we’ll be selecting a contractor in the new year and we want to get shovels in the ground there.”
Also of note was the arrival of a CT scanner at North Hastings Hospital in Bancroft. Staff is now training on the machine and it will be serving patients in the new year.
Daub ended her look back at 2023 by describing her happiest moment of the year.
“Our Children’s Treatment Centre recently decorated their whole centre as the Polar Express so there was a conductor when you came into the building, children came into the building. All of the staff and therapists were dressed in their pajamas. Children got a ticket and they rode the Polar Express to better health and wellness at the Children’s Treatment Centre who do an amazing job.”
