Members of the Hanover and District Hospital have heard about the importance of human resources.
President and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association Tom Closson spoke to the Hanover hospital board about the driving force behind hospitals — human resources.
Closson predicts staffing shortages in hospitals are not going to get any better over the next 5 to 10 years — in fact he says they will get worse.
Closson says Ontario needs a new strategy that better utilizes the resources.
This includes looking at different models of care to provide more flexibility within the health care system.
Closson says one of the ways they can do this is to re-examine the role of health care professionals and determine if their roles should be expanded, updated or changed all together.
Prevention is another key to solving this problem.
Closson says more needs to be done to promote healthy living so people don’t become sick in the first place.
In Ontario 1 per cent of the population utilize 49 per cent of the health resources.
Closson adds the health care profession needs to be better marketed to high school students in the hopes of recruiting future health care workers.