As the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to rise in Windsor-Essex and London-Middlesex, some of Chatham-Kent's top officials in the health sector and the municipality say they are ready and willing to help out wherever they can.
At the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Vice President of People and Chief Nursing Executive Lisa Northcott said local hospitals are making sure there are extra beds available in case the facilities in Windsor or London get overwhelmed with patients.
"One of the things that we have put in place... is we are ensuring we have 15 per cent capacity to take patients from Windsor or London if those organizations get into a situation where their occupancy is such that they can't accommodate those patients," said Northcott. "As far as other impacts, at this point, we're not feeling an impact right away based on the cases we're seeing in the London or Windsor area."
Northcott said those regions haven't had to send any patients to Chatham-Kent yet because of a lack of capacity, but they have "repatriated" some patients who were initially sent to London or Windsor for care. She said in all of those cases, the patients were properly isolated and extra precautions were taken to prevent any possible spread of the virus.
From a municipal standpoint, Chatham-Kent's CAO Don Shropshire noted that there are already several mutual aid agreements in place with neighbouring municipalities for things like ambulance and fire and rescue services.
"When it comes to helping people if there's a crisis, there are systems in place and we are doing that," said Shropshire. "We recognize that we have an integrated community with our neighbours and we will do whatever we can to support them."
He also noted that more than 70 members of Chatham-Kent's municipal staff live in Windsor-Essex -- and have been directed to work from home wherever possible.
Local public health officials are also ready to help wherever needed.
Chatham-Kent's Medical Officer of Health (MOH) Dr. David Colby said he has a "collegial relationship" with Windsor-Essex's MOH Dr. Wajid Ahmed, noting he is in touch with Dr. Ahmed at least two to three times per week to touch base on various issues both of their jurisdictions are facing.
Dr. Colby said Chatham-Kent's public health unit has given assistance in the past to their counterparts in Windsor-Essex but believes they are currently at a point where the necessary response would overwhelm the combined forces of the two health units even if the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit was called in to help.
He said there are also other networks that are set up for aid and assistance across the province, adding that other health units that have similar problems of rising COVID-19 caseloads have received that help.
"We will remain in touch," said Dr. Colby. "And we'll do our best to help any of our neighbouring jurisdictions that need our help because it could be us in a short while."
