PEIHealth P.E.I.’s CEO says while the Island has made “tremendous” gains in bringing in more health-care staff, it’s still not enough — but “momentum” is building to put P.E.I. in a better position.Meanwhile, PCH ICU nurse says hospital ‘still very much struggling’Cody MacKay · CBC News · Posted: Oct 31, 2025 6:17 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesHealth P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser told a room of dozens of health-care workers that the province is in a better place than it was in previous years. (Daniel Brown/CBC)Health P.E.I.’s CEO says while the Island has made “tremendous” gains in bringing in more health-care staff, it’s still not enough — but “momentum” is building to put P.E.I. in a better position.The theme throughout Melanie Fraser’s speech at Health P.E.I.’s annual general meeting was that the provincial health authority is gaining traction across the system, particularly when it comes to recruiting staff. The agency’s budget now exceeds $1 billion and is expected to continue climbing.All provinces, however, are locked in a recruiting battle for the limited number of new health-care graduates in Canada.A study published in January of this year through Health Canada showed that there are roughly 1,300 family physicians graduating each year in Canada, despite a national shortage of more than 22,800.The same study, referencing latest data from 2022, showed the nationwide need for approximately 14,000 more licensed practical nurses (with 6,300 yearly graduates), 2,700 more nurse practitioners (550 yearly graduates) and 28,000 more registered nurses (9,000 yearly graduates).Health P.E.I. has made strides in filling the gaps on the Island , Fraser said, adding that it’s been “hand-to-hand combat out in the field on this war on talent, and we’re winning.” Breaking into tears, Fraser thanked staff close to her and health-care workers across the province.”I am so immensely grateful to our staff. You demonstrate courage, compassion, resilience and unwavering commitment — even in the face of significant challenge,” she said.”Your courage, your work brings me to tears.… We’re one Island. We’re one health-care system, we have to be one team. It’s up to us, and we succeed together. We saw how fragile it could be. It’s better. Let’s keep going.”‘We’re still very much struggling,’ PCH nurse saysAt the meeting, Fraser and Health Minister Mark McLane were questioned on how much progress was actually being made.Morgan Oatway, a registered nurse at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, said there’s been “diminished” senior staffing in the intensive-care unit.When she joined 15 years ago, she said she was mentored by nurses with 20 and 30 years of critical care experience. Now, she said recent graduates “only two or three years out of school” are training other new grads.Prince County Hospital nurse Morgan Oatway says her unit continues to struggle despite Health P.E.I.’s recruitment and retention efforts. (Daniel Brown/CBC)”When we’re not able to mentor appropriately, we lose those staff members after a very short time,” she said in an interview. “Acute care is very very difficult. We work weekends, nights, holidays, and it’s very hard to keep people in those acute-care facilities.”She also said the PCH has seen a jump in the number of travel nurses filling shifts. Health P.E.I. is expected to spend nearly $11.2 million on travel nurses and allied health professionals into 2026. The budget for travel nurses alone five years ago was around $28,000 .Health P.E.I.’s recruitment campaigns, she said, haven’t led to any change in her unit, which reopened for the first time in two years this past August.”We’ve really not seen any improvement in our unit, despite the fact that we’ve now opened,” Oakley said.”Health P.E.I. thinks we’re a fully functioning unit, but we’re still very much struggling.”‘We are starting to feel more stable’In an interview, Fraser said the push on recruitment, retention and training is just going to intensify to try and meet the need.”If you go back 18 months ago and you look at the Prince County Hospital, the ICU had closed and I would say that there’s a sense that the hospital was in decline,” she said.”It became very important for us to stabilize the hospital, bring back the ICU and that required bringing in staff of all kinds.”Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser says recruitment and training efforts will continue to ramp up in the years ahead. (Daniel Brown/CBC)Now that the ICU is up and running again, the goal is now to “upskill” nurses in the system and recruit more to work in the PCH ICU.”We have a better chance of doing that with a hospital that exists, that has robust services, than if we had just let it decline and then tried to fix the problem afterwards,” she said.Progress will still take more time to see, but she said it’s starting to take hold.”We are starting to feel more stable. You can start to feel the stress and the tension in the organization start to give way. And I say ‘start to give way’ because there’s still more rebuilding to do,” she said.”We have to stay focused on those priorities, and when you look through our [strategic] plan, the goals haven’t really changed. Everything needs to be about connecting every Islander to primary care.”ABOUT THE AUTHORCody MacKay is a writer, editor and producer for CBC News on Prince Edward Island. From Summerside, he’s a UPEI history and Carleton masters of journalism grad who joined CBC P.E.I. in 2017. You can reach him at cody.mackay@cbc.ca
‘Momentum’ building to turn around P.E.I.’s fragile health-care system, CEO says at AGM
