I’ll start the week with the Long Service Awards held at Princess Margaret. I’ve attached a picture of me and Tak Mak who was honoured for 45 years of service (see below). It brought back memories for me when, as a young respirologist at the Wellesley Hospital, I had a clinical and academic interest in stem cell transplant patients and next door at the original Princess Margaret, Tak Mak was an accomplished scientist with many achievements, one of which was the discovery of the T-cell receptor. My thanks for the memories and for all of the service of the people we celebrated at Princess Margaret last week.
We also heard last week that two of our projects were funded by the Hospital Energy Efficiency Program and Ed Rubinstein and his team are to be congratulated for everything they do to reduce UHN’s energy use and provide a safer and more comfortable environment of care for our patients and staff. The funds we receive will replace two very old server room cooling units at TGH and the obsolete lighting in the PM atrium will be replaced with LEDs. Not necessarily high profile work but critical to our continued ability to function while reducing our costs of running both buildings.
I attended the Michener Institute of Education at UHN’s Town Hall last week which updated everyone on a number of files including the fact that Michener is developing a new registry for Personal Support Workers (PSWs) in the Province of Ontario. PSWs are vital to the health care system, working in many health care institutions and in people’s homes. We also heard about the design work for the Research Institute for Health Care Education where we’re building a state-of-the-art simulated operating room and multi-purpose simulation and wet labs. This is all being planned for Michener’s 12th floor with construction to begin in the summer of 2018. Very exciting for education across UHN!
And finally, we welcomed a total of 22 new physicians into the UHN fold last Thursday evening at our second New Physician Orientation – see photo below. The air was thick with laughter and chatter as the group of physicians, senior executives, and U of T’s vice-Dean enjoyed refreshments and each other’s company in the corporate boardroom at TGH before the formal presentations began. It was a great evening that encouraged networking and reinforced the organization’s PVP and foundational elements as well the critical leadership roles our physicians hold in caring for our patients. The session was developed in collaboration amongst the Medical Staff Association, Chief Medical Officer’s office and Human Resources. I’m very much looking forward to the next Physician Orientation on Thursday, February 8th, 2018.
Charlie
