THUNDER BAY – Staffing levels are getting back to seasonal normality at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
Dr. Stewart Kennedy, the hospital’s lead on it COVID-19 response team, on Wednesday said 44 employees who were sent home recently as a precautionary measure following contact with a presumptive coronavirus case are now allowed back on the job.
Kennedy said the presumptive case turned out to be negative.
The hospital still has 10 employees in self-isolation following contact with a positive case, and another 60 or so sent home after failing to meet two screening criteria.
“The testing results that came back on the individual was negative, so those staff are all quite relieved and they’ve come back to work,” Kennedy said.
“They’re in good spirits, I believe, but it’s a shock when people are sent home because they came in contact with potential COVID-19.”
Kennedy once again made a plea to the province to ramp up testing and analysis in Thunder Bay, saying enhanced ability in this area would mean workers off the job for several hours instead of several days.
He added with 2,700 employees at the hospital, current levels of staff being off due to illness aren’t that worrisome.
But there’s a limit the facility can handle, even at 60 per cent patient capacity.
Kennedy said it’s forced them to make tough choices when it comes to their screening protocol.
Public health officials have recommended they send staff home exhibiting one COVID-19 symptoms, which include runny noses, a new cough, a fever, chest pain or shortness of breath.
“We have not followed those guidelines at this point in time, knowing the risks that are involved. We have to balance the risk of following the guidelines under public health, versus our ability to staff the hospital,” Kennedy said.
“If we had enhanced turnaround time, either in-house testing or were able to get turnaround times within several days, I think we’d actually reconsider the need to actually do one symptom.”
Kennedy does not have a ballpark number of how many staff would have to be off at one time to have a major impact on the facility’s ability to function.
He said at the moment they have staff in other departments who could be redeployed, so he’s not too concerned – at least not yet.
“Is there a particular number? No, but we’ll gauge that on an hourly basis, on a daily basis and certainly we will put no patients at risk. And if a lot of the staff are off, we’ll certainly have to relook at the screening criteria with safety in mind and see if we have to adjust things as we move along through this pandemic,” Kennedy said.
“There are always staff off with illnesses in the community, so it’s not abnormal or a heightened abnormality right now. Last week, when we had 105, it was.”
Kennedy said he has yet to do a full assessment of rapid-fire COVID-19 tests that have been developed, adding he wants to know more about false negative screenings that could cause larger issues.
He is particularly intrigued at what it could mean for remote communities, adding the turnaround might not be quick enough at the hospital itself.
“It would have great value in Indigenous communities and remote communities in the North with a smaller population because you can do one an hour. You’d only have access to 24 in 24 hours. To do the increased testing that we should be doing, it would have limited value here, unless you bought multiple machines.”
