Time has us all in its grip, no escape, no mercy. An objective fact, it plays into whatever we do, and moves on relentlessly. Our perception, however, is that bad moments last forever, and time flies when we like what we do. Fortunately, our memory is skewed to retain the good moments better than the bad ones. As a result, this year flew by, at least for me.
Yes, many things happened including “Manage to Budget” and “Consolidation”. They shaped and will continue to shape our environment. And the formation of “Shared Health Services Manitoba” adds another level of complexity and uncertainty to the mix. Everything seems changing. And that is by itself neither good nor bad. The qualifiers depend on what we make out of what comes our way. Changes always create new opportunities: Let’s take advantage of them!
Despite the (fiscal) constraints and all uncertainty, we need to build in some areas in order to adapt and stay successful. We will, however, only be able to invest for these purposes what we saved somewhere else. There is, therefore, a continuing need to focus on what we agreed is our core business, delivery of tertiary care, education, and innovation.
I’d like to thank all of you for your engaged commitment to our Department. I commend you all for your individual contributions during the past year in working collaboratively towards our goals: caring for our patients, educating the next generation of internists and subspecialists, and innovating how we do business. I would also like to thank your partners and families for their support and for their understanding of the long hours you put into your work.
I hope you will be able to spend some time with your loved ones over the Holidays, and look forward to working with you again on the challenges 2018 will undoubtedly bring.
Happy Holidays and my best wishes for the New Year!
I agree that mindful adaptation is reasonable, but I think it is also important to understand that there may be an incremental impact of adaptation on domains that reflect our core values if we are not careful.
Also we must distinguish between the concepts of adaptation and resilience. Although adaptation responses can help to build resilience, they just as easily can undermine resilience. This has been observed in the context of climate change, but we can envision how it could easily be seen in the context of overstressed health care systems and caregivers.
…My own wishes to everyone for a safe happy and healthy holiday season …