Ottawa – Each year, more than 100,000 Canadians receive life-saving care in intensive units, relying on the support and care of intensive care teams. This Canadian Intensive Care Week, we would like to celebrate and thank intensive care teams across the country for everything they do to help Canadians in our most critical moments. We recognize the exceptional work undertaken by health professionals in intensive care settings to help patients recover from serious injury or illness. They see patients at a time in which they are the most vulnerable and provide critical care and life support with compassion and professionalism.
Health workers, including intensive care staff, are the backbone of our health care system. We know that Canada’s health workforce is currently facing challenges in emergency rooms and intensive care units due to shortages of health workers that have led to unprecedented levels of burnout, absences and turnover. Together with the provinces and territories, we are working to improve conditions for health workers and identify both immediate and longer-term solutions to address these significant challenges.
As part of our work to support health workers, our Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians Plan is investing close to $200 billion over 10 years in Canadian health services. This plan includes a focus on efforts to support the health workforce through retention and recruitment, and to establish more team-based models of care. The plan also includes the creation of a new Centre of Excellence for the future of the health workforce to support better planning for the future by improving the information and data we have about the health workforce.
We also recently committed, along with our provincial and territorial partners, to work collaboratively on health workforce retention issues facing all professions across the health workforce, with a focus on nursing retention this year and other health professions in future years. We have agreed with our counterparts to promote the dissemination and implementation of the “Nursing Retention Toolkit: Improving the Working Lives of Nurses in Canada” once launched, which employers and health authorities can implement to support nursing retention within their organizations. We will continue working with provincial and territorial partners to support health workers, and advance efforts that were committed to at the Health Ministers’ Meeting on Prince Edward Island earlier this month.
Every day, intensive care professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists and other support staff are on the frontlines, working tirelessly for long hours to help those in need. They have sacrificed so much to keep us healthy and safe. We are proud to support health workers and advance efforts to improve their wellbeing and reduce burnout. On behalf of the Government of Canada, thank you for the critical care you provide to Canadians every day and the important role you play in our health and well-being. – Mark Holland, Ya’ara Saks