Our Health is Everything
Our Health is Everything!
My mother Sandra lost a long battle with congestive heart failure and diabetes. She used to say, “when you don’t have your health you have nothing!” Covid reminded us of that fact when everyone’s health was at risk. Covid also highlighted the many issues with our health care system, especially with access and workforce shortages.
The provincial and territorial governments are responsible for the management, organization and delivery of health care services. The federal government is responsible for setting and administering national standards for health care via the Canada Health Act. Municipalities typically do not work in the area of health care; however, we know firsthand how important access to healthcare is to healthy thriving communities.
This is why the Town of Port Hawkesbury has partnered with the Municipality of the County of Richmond, along with other health care partners, to create, “Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health.” Over the past four years, we have worked together to take a regional approach, building on the strengths of our local communities and providing a more collaborative environment to retain and attract physicians and other health care professionals.
Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health (CBSRH) aims to recruit the medical health care professionals our region needs to help improve health outcomes for residents in our communities. We also focus on retention activities to demonstrate our support and appreciation for our regional health care teams, and promotional work to encourage our students to pursue health care careers.
With the help of community volunteers, local businesses, chamber of commerce, and other community partners, we can mobilize in a very grassroots and hands-on way to show interested health care professionals a true picture of our community. We know our communities best, so it is important to have a seat at the table, so we can work with other levels of government to help steer our healthcare futures in a positive direction.
In the past four years, Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health has worked with partners to secure 4 new full-time physicians, 2 new regular locum physicians, more than 30 new full-time nurses, more than 20 new internationally educated healthcare professionals, 3 new full-time nursing practitioner positions and a diverse array of tools to promote our region, including videos, website, social media, and other electronic/paper promotional materials. We’ve had opportunities to connect with prospective and current health care students (some from our communities) and make hundreds of connections that we hope will lead to continued interest in practicing here.
I am always excited to help with promoting our community. Our most recent physician retreat occurred this weekend. In addition to visiting regional healthcare sites, it began with a fun social evening in St.Peters; the following day, a luncheon and hike led by Larry and Sherrill MacKeigan through our beautiful trail system in Port Hawkesbury, ending with a sailing adventure in Richmond.
These retreats are wonderful chances to promote our region for both quality of life, quality of practice opportunities, and as a safe and wonderful place to work and raise families. We talked about school, daycares, career opportunities for their partners, sports and recreation, culture and community, and much more. It was a wonderful weekend, connecting in such a personal way with potential future physicians in our region.
So, when it comes to Municipal work, we are coloring outside the lines a little. I hope our communities support our investment and the outcomes to date. I want to thank our CBSRH director Gina MacDonald, our CBSRH chairperson Juanita Mombourquette, as well as the entire CBSRH executive board and our community and provincial partners.
