QUESTION PERIOD — Health
Retention of Health Care Professionals
November 25, 2021
My question is for the representative of the government in the Senate. Senator Gold, on October 5, the presidents of the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Nurses Association called an emergency COVID-19 summit of representatives of 30 national and provincial health organizations. We know how many challenges to the country the COVID pandemic has created, but the profound and longer-term threat to the integrity of our national health care system caused by the burnout, fatigue and moral distress experienced by front-line health care workers is amongst the most serious. Many nurses and doctors are packing up and leaving the profession.
Against this background, could you please inform the Canadian people, by means of informing us here in the Senate, whether the Minister of Health or Health Canada is in talks with its provincial counterparts to develop a strategic plan to confront this human resource crisis in health care. If Health Canada is not in such talks, might the Minister of Health consider sponsoring this strategic initiative?
Thank you. Notwithstanding that health is a provincial jurisdiction, the Canadian government, the Ministry of Health and their counterparts have been working with their provincial and territorial counterparts in all kinds of ways. The chamber knows the effort that the federal government has made to move and help move personnel from place to place as need be. Military personnel and the like continue to work with their provincial counterparts to make sure that we can do our part collectively to make sure the human resources that are necessary for a vital health care system are strengthened, nurtured and promoted.
