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