GUELPH POLITICAST #402 – Christmas With Mark

It’s time for our annual fireside chat with a prominent member of the Guelph community, and since we’re run the gamut of local political leaders over the last few years, we turn to the new head of the hospital. It’s a massive challenge, but in keeping with the spirit of the season, and the need to help people who can’t help themselves, we're going spend Christmas week with the president and CEO of Guelph General Hospital, Mark Walton.

Walton hasn’t been the head of the Guelph General Hospital for even a year yet, but he had to hit the ground running. He’s already appeared at city council twice, once to talk about offload delays at the hospital, and the other to talk about how homelessness and poverty create more work for hospitals as lagging indicators. And then there's the ongoing demand for a new hospital facility, which is complicated, but it’s another one of those things that’s on Walton’s very busy desk.

But let’s back up for a minute, who is Mark Walton? Before coming to Guelph earlier this year, he served as the Senior Vice-President, COVID-19 Pandemic Response as well as the Regional Lead and CEO of Local Health Integration Networks in the region with Ontario Health. We always associate hospitals with people with stethoscopes, but there are a lot of people with all kinds of experiences and expertise who make hospitals work, and this Christmas, we’re going to talk to one of them.

So on this holiday edition of the podcast, we sit and chat with Walton about his background, and what brought him to Guelph. We will also talk about where pandemic planning fell short, and the paradox of running a hospital in that you have to make an attractive place that no one wants to visit. He will also talk about the hospital’s role in fighting poverty, how fighting the affordability crisis is changing his job, and what the future of Guelph General, and a future Guelph hospital, both look like.

So let's spend some quality Christmas time with the head of the hospital on this week's Guelph Politicast!

To learn more about Guelph General Hospital, you can go to their website, and you can learn more about fundraising to support the hospital at the website for the Foundation of the Guelph General Hospital. While you’re there, you can buy tickets for Black Tie Bingo or take part in some holiday giving.

And speaking of which, Merry Christmas to all you listeners. Thanks for tuning in all year and stay tuned as we keep cranking out new episodes over the holidays and on into 2024.

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