The thing that many in this community have been dreading for the past year finally happened last week, as a COVID-19 outbreak was declared at the Pontiac Hospital.
As of Monday afternoon, there were . . .
11 patients and eight employees who have tested positive, and there will likely be more over the coming days.
So far it appears that most of the cases are fairly mild, and some of those that have tested positive have already received their first vaccine dose, which makes complications much less likely. However, this could change in the blink of an eye, and those exhibiting serious symptoms will likely end up being transferred an hour away to the Hull Hospital.
This isn’t the first outbreak at a local health care facility, as “less than five” employees tested positive at the CHSLD CAP back in March, but it’s certainly a doozy. It should be noted that CISSSO originally identified the number of employee cases at the hospital with the same unhelpful “less than five” description but were able to provide an exact number (3) later that same day. Why are we still participating in secrecy theatre well over a year into the pandemic? Why do authorities keep playing this game with the rates for individual municipalities? Why can’t the public be trusted with the truth?
After keeping case counts low for most of the past year, the virus has arrived in the Pontiac, snaking its way into several local schools and now the crown jewel of our region’s health care system. In addition to the obvious life or death stakes for those directly affected and their families, there is another scary component to this. The hospital’s nursing staff, as well as other trades and specialties, have been operating with a short roster for quite some time now. Overtime hours have more than quadrupled since 2014, with the CISSSO spending over a million dollars in 2020 just to pay for the extra hours at this facility alone.
Our local health care workers have been making do with scarce resources long before this pandemic, and barring a miracle they will face an uphill climb once this nightmare is in the rear-view for the rest of us. Wait times for routine screenings and tests have ballooned, surgeries for things like hip and knee replacements are piling up. As great as it is that summer is nearly here and vaccinations are gathering steam, our health care system is not out of the woods yet by any means.
On top of it all, women still can’t give birth in the Pontiac. Despite assertions from the CISSSO brass that the restoration of our obstetrics unit is their top priority (after COVID of course), we should know better. This is a billion dollar a year organization with more than 10,000 employees spread across an area roughly the size of Belgium. We’re a minnow swimming with whales here, a lot of the decisions are out of our hands but that doesn’t mean give up. The reason we even had the service in the first place was because of the sacrifices of our incredible staff of doctors, nurses and specialists of all kinds.
The issues we’ve had with our health care system have not gone away, they’ve just been shifted to the background with all this COVID mess. We need to keep them front and centre if this region’s situation is ever going to improve.
Caleb Nickerson
