‘Excellent’ staff

Dear Editor:

RE: County hospitals working with neighbouring hospitals on overall COVID-19 response, Dec. 17.

I was recently interviewed by the Wellington Advertiser and quoted as saying “…it’s staff bringing it (COVID-19) to hospitals that causes outbreaks, it is not spread from infected patients.”

I need to clarify it was not my intention with this interview to imply that any of our staff have brought COVID-19 into our Wellington Health Care Alliance (WHCA) hospitals, nor are we impacted by a COVID-19 outbreak.

My intention was to applaud our staff for complying with PPE protocols and avoiding any outbreaks at our WHCA hospital sites. Many of our partner area hospitals and long-term care homes are in COVID-19 outbreaks and have been linked to staff sharing food, or during a lapse in wearing PPE and distancing during breaks.

I am proud of the fact that this is not the case at WHCA. Please know, WHCA hospitals are not in a COVID-19 outbreak.

We should all be applauding and thanking the excellent work of all our staff and physicians.

Stephen Street, President and CEO, Groves Memorial Community Hospital and North Wellington Health Care