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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 24 ,2 02 2 | 18 The impact of CO- VID-19 on Canadian health care is already evi- dent. The pandemic wid- ened pre-existing stress fractures in the sustaina- bility and resilience of our health-care system. The urgency to mend these fractures is becom- ing greater by the day. There are three broad categories of repairs de- serving swift attention: improving population health, modernizing health-care infrastruc- ture and bolstering health human resources. The negative impact on population health will be challenging to over- come. Postponed diag- nostics, surgeries and other delayed procedures have increased the amount of undiagnosed and untreated illness in our communities. Health disparities among those experienc- ing barriers to care may widen further. The prov- en collaboration between health system partners during the pandemic -- to enact public health proto- cols, open testing centres and launch local vaccina- tion programs -- is wor- thy of continued invest- ment by government as a means to safely and equi- tably recover the health of our population. The accelerated re- newal of health-care in- frastructure is also vital to the recovery effort. We cannot confront 21st-century health prob- lems inside 100-year-old facilities. This was made evident during the pandemic as COVID-19 spread quickly through outdated hospi- tal wards built to meet in- fection standards from a bygone era. Ambulances lined up outside facili- ties, lacking adequate bed capacity. If we do not expedite the renewal and expan- sion of outdated emer- gency departments, criti- cal care units and in-pa- tient wards, we will con- tinue to be highly vulnerable to future pan- demics. This risk increases ex- ponentially if hiring gaps persist -- current and emerging -- in our health-care workforce. Prior to 2019, vacan- cies for health-care work- ers needed in growing hospital services were al- ready not being filled. As one example, surgical nursing shortages were evident across Canada. This situation has worsened during the pan- demic, as workers retire or exit health care for oth- er reasons. It will be impossible to reduce the list of back- logged surgical proce- dures without the re- quired nursing staff. It will also be very challenging to increase other hospital services, or expand capacity in long-term care and home care. More skilled workers were needed before the pandemic and the situa- tion now poses a critical risk to the sustainability of quality health care. These challenges ex- isted before COVID-19, but the risk of inaction has increased remark- ably. This has been the most profound impact on health care arising from the pandemic. Rob MacIsaac is presi- dent and CEO of Hamil- ton Health Sciences and a member of Torstar's Ham- ilton Advisory Council. PANDEMIC EXACERBATES EXISTING HEALTH-CARE PROBLEMS OPINION: OUR CHANGED WORLD ACCELERATED RENEWAL OF INFRASTRUCTURE VITAL TO RECOVERY EFFORT, SAYS ROB MACISAAC ROB MACISAAC Column