From the desk of Dr. Michael Gardam, Health PEI CEO
Hi everybody,
As 2023 comes to a close, I want to wish all of you a happy holiday season and I hope that 2024 is a good year for all of you. I feel like we are not quite out of our pandemic slump, although 2023 was certainly better for us than 2022 and let us never talk about 2021 again!
This is my last note to you as CEO. Corinne Rowswell will be taking over as Interim CEO on January 2nd and I understand that the search for the permanent CEO is going well. I know the Board wants to find the next CEO as quickly as possible so as not to lose too much time on our wild journey to making Health PEI better for you and for Islanders. You are in very good hands with Corinne and the leadership team. I’ll still be in the background, helping where needed for a smooth transition until the end of March.
I wasn’t supposed to be here for this long, but I am very glad that I took the plunge and stayed these past three years. I have truly enjoyed living on the island and being CEO, and I hope you feel we are in a better place now than three years ago. We have faced enormous challenges but also have been able to make some significant improvements.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t more to do, not by a long shot. I am hoping though that there is good news on the horizon: the recent changes in approach to the complement system for physicians, licensing of some foreign-trained physicians, opening the doors to internationally educated nurses, as well as physician assistants and associate physicians will mean that the worst of our staffing issues are behind us.
Human resources is also building a recruitment team, we are tackling our historic cultural issues, our physician leadership structure is falling into place, and we are working towards better, more supportive collective agreements with our union partners. We couldn’t have done all of these things on our own but rather worked with multiple partners to steer the ship in a better direction. Changing a healthcare system has often been compared to changing the course of an oil tanker with a rowboat. We have done an awful lot of rowing.
To every staff member, thank you for your dedication and hard work over the past years. We truly have remarkable people at Health PEI, doing remarkable things.
I haven’t given up my subscription to Saltwire and plan on following the goings-on at Health PEI. Who knows, I might pop up in the op-eds from time to time!
Thanks,
Michael
Please send questions, comments, or submissions for these notes to emclean@gov.pe.ca, subject line “Notes for Michael”.