Health PEI hopes to bring in 3 surgeons for Prince County Hospital

Health PEI is hoping to have a full complement of general surgeons by the end of summer at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside.

One surgeon has been hired and the province's Health Department is in the process of hiring two more, Dr. Michael Gardam, acting CEO of Health PEI, told a legislative standing committee on health and social development in Charlottetown Thursday morning.

"The surgeon will be starting in mid-July. The other two, my understanding is there's a letter of offer out and we're kind of in that end stage. But I don't know specifically if something has been signed … that's done by the department," Gardam said.

"My understanding is all three are recent graduates, the three general surgeons. The plan by the end of the summer is that they'll be starting there. I'm hoping that we're turning the corner."

In an email to CBC, health officials with the province confirmed one doctor has been hired and two others are "close to finished" in the process.

While the department confirmed these surgeons are taking full-time positions, it has yet to confirm whether these positions are permanent or locum.

'Different model'

The plan is to have surgeons headed for the PCH connect with surgeons already at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as a type of "mentorship," Gardam said.

"They'll be coming into a different model, where they are coming into a provincial surgical services model," he said.

PCH has been dealing with staffing shortages for some time.

At the start of May there was a four-day shutdown for surgery, and major trauma cases were diverted to QEH. Health PEI confirmed two surgeons are leaving PCH at the end of June — and another surgeon has been on administrative leave since late 2020.

"I can't get into the issue as to why those surgeons decided to leave," Gardam said, adding that it was a human resources issue, which has spilled over to the public.

There has also been a controversy in terms of who would help out in the emergency department in Summerside, paramedics or nurses.

"Traditionally what would have happened, I'll just be blunt, what would have happened is that PCH would have tried to bring in nurses from QEH. We'd steal from each other. And I've said, 'You're not doing that. We can't steal from each other,'" he said.

"I'm setting these rules in place where it's like, 'No, we have to work together on how we are going to figure it out.'"

Hiring barriers for Health PEI

Gardam said the province has to think of a different way of dealing with health staff shortages. For example, he heard of a stipend to get ICU nurses to work in Summerside.

"They are paying a pretty penny signing bonus for ICU nurses, you know. One of the things I said is, 'That's fantastic and they have to be nurses from off-Island, otherwise you are just going to gut QEH,'" he said. 

"Which I think maybe in the past might have maybe been OK. It's not OK. And so, it's very early days but those are the kind of rules were putting in place so we get somewhere."

One of the biggest challenges Health PEI is facing, Gardam said, is that it doesn't do hiring of staff itself, the province's Health Department does.

Gardam was critical of provincial recruitment strategies, which he said often look for some form of Island connection to bring physicians to the province — or bring those who have been trained back to P.E.I.

Gardam said that isn't a viable recruitment strategy.

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