By Pepper Parr
March 20th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
The ward 2 resident got a call from a Public Health nurse:
We did receive a call from a Public Health Nurse in the past hour; my wife and I will be going for COVID-19 Testing. Someone from Joseph Brant hospital will be contacting us with an appointment time soon.
You can almost feel the anxiety in the words a ward 2 resident sent us early this morning.
Give a listen:
Why don’t we qualify for a COVID-19 test
Myself and my Family Returned from Epicentre Spain March 17th.
– We are self-isolating
– We have since developed symptoms of COVID-19
– We were in direct contact with Sick persons in Spain
– Yesterday we had a Tele-Appointment with our Family Doctor (Dr. Adam Grezslo) He prescribed us ‘Puffers’ for our breathing conditions and advised we get tested.
We informed the Doctor we called 311 who informed us we don’t qualify as they are concentrating on Health Care workers. He was amazed by this change of strategy.
I am reaching out to you our representatives at the City, Regional, Provincial and Federal Levels – If the persons you represent, residents such as me and my family with all of the COVID-19 red flags aren’t being tested – who is?
We would really like to follow our Doctors advice and get tested. I’m hoping you can help get us through the red tape.
If high risk families like us are not being tested: You have no idea if the number of cases you are dealing with in Halton. The numbers we are tracking on the news are irrelevant.
Minutes after receiving the email from the ward 2 resident we were copied on an email from Regional Chair Gary Carr who is passing the matter along to his staff, which includes the Medical Officer of Health and that will probably get the resident the test he wants.
The concern is that Gary Carr can’t stick handle every concern.
Sticky.
I would encourage residents to look at what is being done in London Ontario by going to Middlesex London Health Unit Covid 19 site. Hopefully, our Regional hospitals will be able to offer the same level of care in the near future.
Our experience and documentation of how Burlington/Halton has handled infection control for the last 15 years does not leave us surprised. Thank you for giving this Ward 2 resident a means of sharing her experience. Exposure at this time can help get this beat without the large number of deaths we saw 2006 and 2007 as long as we publicly express our outrage at this ward 2 resident story until our representative tackles it and makes sure this is not going going to lead to more unnecessary Burlington deaths.