The COVID-19 outbreak on the general care ward at the Pontiac Hospital has grown since it was first announced on April 23, but the situation has stabilized according to the regional health authority CISSSO.

As of May 3, 18 patients and 12 employees had tested positive, in a ward on the second floor that has a total of 37 beds (three of those ICU) and roughly 25 dedicated staff members. Approximately 150 employees work sporadically in that area and were . . .

encouraged to get tested as a result. A week before on April 26, there were 11 patients and eight employees positive according to CISSSO.

Eleven of the positive cases were being treated in the hospital’s COVID ward as of May 3. One person was critically ill and had to be transferred to the Hull Hospital on April 30. The rest were isolating at home, and at least three employees have been cleared to return to work.

Construction on the COVID ward, which separated the floor into hot and cold zones, began April 23, and is now able to accommodate up to 16 patients, with room to expand further if needed.

“The situation is under control, in the sense that we have no other recurring cases,” wrote CISSSO media relations agent Patricia Rhéaume in an email on May 3. “However, we are always on alert …”

The Equity spoke with two employees at the Pontiac Hospital who have extensive knowledge of the situation. Both requested anonymity as they are not cleared to speak with the media and feared reprisals from CISSSO’s managers. They will be referred to as Source 1 and Source 2.

Source 1 said that given the outbreaks elsewhere in the region, they were expecting one to happen in Pontiac at any time.

“I’m surprised that it took this long,” they said. “Everybody in the city had it already, it was only a matter of time before our little hospital was [hit] with it.”

Source 1 said that a single patient case at the hospital was detected earlier in April, however it wasn’t until April 22 that the first employee tested positive. The CISSSO announced the outbreak the following day, with an initial count of nine patients and three employees with COVID.

Source 1 added that a specialist coordinator had visited the hospital on April 23 and 27 to assist with setting up the COVID ward and curbing the outbreak.

“[We] couldn’t ask for any better guidance and support from them, they were absolutely amazing,” they said.

Surgery

Source 2 was furious due to what they perceived as lax protocols regarding the public being allowed onto the second floor to meet with their surgeons for pre-op consultations, pointing out that patients on that floor are not allowed to have visitors.

“Every single patient from the general public that goes to see the surgeons traipses through general care,” they said. “Almost all of them come to the main desk and say, ‘Where’s the surgeons’ office?’ … The surgeons don’t have to be there, they can be somewhere else, they can be downstairs for example … I find it absolutely preposterous.”

Source 2 added that considering how long the situation went on, it amounted to hundreds of people passing through the floor that didn’t have to.

Source 1 said that while the general public didn’t have access to most of the ward, a staff member was in place to guide people coming in for pre-op consultations. They added that many operations had been postponed, and surgeons were doing consultations by phone if possible.

Source 1 added that even though the hospital was already short on nursing staff before the outbreak, they now had plenty of empty beds due to people being sent home or staying away from the facility, so they were able to make do with a limited roster.

Vaccinations

Source 1 said that vaccinations for those waiting in the hospital for a long-term care bed were started on April 22.

“They started about two weeks ago, anybody that was here on the unit that was waiting for a placement on a long-term care unit, there’s a nurse that came down, and with the patient’s or family’s consent, they were vaccinated, first dose. One of them had [their] second dose .

“We got a memo [on April 29] that now they’re going to be starting coming and vaccinating the other patients, the ones that are not waiting for a long-term care unit,” Source 1 continued. “We don’t have a date, but they will come and vaccinate them also.”

The issue has been in the media as of late, due to two stories by Le Droit’s Justine Mercier, published on April 25 and 26. They detail the plight of Émile Brazeau, a 93 year-old man with asthma who was in the short-term care ward at the Wakefield Hospital from late November 2020 until early March, waiting for a bed at a long-term care facility. Though he was in one of the highest risk categories for COVID-19, he hadn’t been vaccinated during his stay in Wakefield or at the private facility in Gatineau where he now resides.

His family wrote two letters to Quebec’s Health Minister Christian Dubé on April 12 and 19, asking him to remedy the situation, but they didn’t get any official response until the first story was published on the 25th. The following day, Dubé’s spokesperson Marjaurie Côté-Boileau, told Le Droit that the minister had asked the CISSSO to follow up and fix the situation quickly, and acknowledged that certain pitfalls can arise in the battle against COVID.

Source 2 told The Equity on April 27 that there were several similar cases at the Pontiac Hospital.

“We have five or six of those in Shawville,” they said. “They’re in the hospital now and they got their vaccination last week … They should have been vaccinated months ago.”

Source 1 explained that the distribution of vaccinations was the responsibility of public health. They added that if the patient was mobile enough, their family could take them to one of the public vaccination sites, like the one in Campbell’s Bay.

“We don’t have that authority,” they said. “We don’t have access to the vaccines here. All the vaccines come from the city. If a patient was able to go out accompanied, of course they could go to Campbell’s Bay or wherever like usual. Some of them did go.”

Source 2 said that not all patients were in a state to be transported, due to mobility and other issues.

“The hospital won’t pay for transportation for hospitalized patients to go to Campbell’s Bay, so the family has to do it,” they said. “Well sometimes that’s a little tricky because they have wheelchairs or they’re not very mobile, but still, the family has to do it.”

Source 2 pointed out the irony that vaccines were being stored at the Pontiac Hospital’s pharmacy under lock and key, when people at risk were living in the same building.

“It’s kept in the pharmacy of the hospital with a guard paid 24/7 in front of the door to make sure nobody steals the vaccine. The people who need the vaccines are the ones upstairs on general care,” they said. “A bunch of them are waiting for long-term care. If they were in long-term care they’d have a chance at getting the vaccine. If they were at home they would have a chance at getting the vaccine, but they’re on general care. They won’t give them a vaccine and it’s been like this the whole time.”

When The Equity asked the CISSSO about how many patients had been vaccinated and for further details on the protocol for vaccinating patients in short-term care, Rhéaume responded on May 3 that she couldn’t “confirm this information since it is confidential according to the health authorities.”

However, she gave that information to Le Droit just a week earlier for their April 26 article, where she stated that all patients waiting for a long-term care bed in CISSSO’s hospitals had been vaccinated in the past two weeks. She added that a committee had been working to update vaccination in hospitals.

Both sources expressed fear about repercussions from upper management if they were caught talking to the media.

“Oh my god, please don’t use my name … I’ll lose my job,” Source 1 said.

“None of us can say anything because we could lose our jobs, and our positions and our everything,” Source 2 said. “We can’t speak out [publicly] … all I can do is ask [the media] to ask questions … It’s really intimidating what the bosses do, it’s very intimidating.”

Source 1 said that in spite of all the challenges posed by this outbreak, they were extremely grateful for their fellow staff at the hospital.

“I’m very proud of them, they’re very good,” they said. “[We] couldn’t do it without them.”

Register or subscribe to read this content

Thanks for stopping by! This article is available to readers who have created a free account or who subscribe to The Equity.

When you register for free with your email, you get access to a limited number of stories at no cost. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish—and directly support quality local journalism here in the Pontiac.

Register or Subscribe Today!