Your question is a very broad one. I will focus on medical imaging, our field of expertise.
Overall, two urgent needs must be addressed quickly. First of all, the working conditions of our radiology technologists must be improved to ensure their retention. This is a really important piece because there is a shortage of technologists. Therefore, a retention strategy is required immediately. The profession is somewhat undervalued.
The other truly urgent need that can be addressed quickly is the integration of an information technology system. Currently, it makes no sense that a patient is still sending off a fax to book a medical imaging appointment. When you look at the patient treatment process, from the moment the doctor writes the prescription to the moment the patient books an appointment until the moment they undergo the examination, you see that several of the information systems used are not integrated. Serious priority needs to be given to system integration. In my opinion, it would spur huge savings in staffing and lessen the burden on staff.
The next, longer-term priority for investment is equipment. That investment would certainly provide us with more modern equipment than what we currently have. Concerning staffing, the focus needs to be on training. For example, in Saskatchewan, there is no training for technologists. In Quebec, we could do more training. We also have a lot of technologists who are leaving the field. Therefore, there needs to be improved training, greater value placed on technologists and efforts to retain them.
I think that if we focus on those components, we can improve performance, but, once again, I am a big proponent of integrated IT. That can help us a lot.