Health committee  Yes, we would try to do this and work with the universities and colleges to support it. Primary care is an interesting one, because we have a very large family medicine program here, but it's a distributed education model, and they have placements all over Ontario and beyond. The

Health committee  In the early phases of the pandemic, as you know, emergency departments really closed down. People stopped coming. There was lots of capacity in regional hospitals, our local post-acute care hospital, rehab and [Technical difficulty—Editor] and there was capacity in long-term car

Health committee  Most Ontario hospitals run in those ranges, yes.

Health committee  That's one of the options. We do have an alternate payment plan here at Queen's that has protected physicians from the ebbs and flows of the ability to bill fee for service during the pandemic. With the nursing shortages and others, we've hired and trained a lot of nurses, as m

Health committee  It's complicated. There are opportunities. In my own domain, doing certain follow-up visits by virtual care or by telephone can be quite effective and save patients from having to travel long distances. On the other hand, doing consultations and providing urgent and emergent care

Health committee  Well, apart from the fact that everything has changed, it's a little hard to give you one or two examples. We're learning how and where digital and virtual care is most effective. It's not useful everywhere, but it's highly useful in selected places. We have a lot to learn about

Health committee  You're right; there is no quick fix. Right now the thing that's impeding our ability to restore care most significantly is our rising ALC rates for the patients who've completed their journey of care in the hospital and are waiting to go to another destination, whether that's hom

Health committee  Thank you. I'll try to address your questions. Hospitals are very complex and highly integrated organisms, I would say. It's amazing the extent of the just-in-time work we do with teams pulling together. Some of our surgical procedures are just one example of what it takes to de

Health committee  Good afternoon. Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for this opportunity. I'm speaking to you today from my perspective as a tertiary hospital CEO, an orthopaedic surgeon and a professor at Queen's University. Like our peer hospitals, Kingston Health Sciences Centre has