We want to thank Dr. Jessica Summerfield for joining us as our guest speaker this past Monday, President of the Essex County Medical Society.
During her presidency, she was challenged with working through Covid. That meant representing local physicians, working through pubic health guidelines, supporting the vaccination role out and addressing hesitancy.
In the early days of Covid, she mentioned how waiting rooms, clinics, and doctors' offices were completely empty from fear of the virus, which meant that many health conditions were neglected. Now there is a backlog of neglected care resulting in many patients becoming weaker. People often thought to themselves, "I'll deal with it when the pandemic is over".
Workflows have been challenging to manage since they've shifted dramatically with the pandemic. Physicians have been pulled to take additional shifts in the hospitals; Dr. Summerfield says that she has done double the amount of shifts that she would typically do to help out her team and help patients. The field hospitals also increased the need for physicians.
Meanwhile, General Surgeons, we're shut down and without work for a long time, waiting for surgeries to be permitted.
Throughout Covid, our healthcare workers have seen the need for the new mega-hospital with a lack of private rooms, negative pressure rooms for Covid patients, and lack of continuity of care. The pandemic has affected the way physicians and health care workers negatively view their work.
They are in favour of the new hospital so that they can provide greater care to patients with increased continuity of care by having various specialties in the same building, less fragmented. A new facility also means that they will be able to treat patients with updated equipment. The current ageing hospitals are unsafe, and a new hospital would help Windsor to attract new talent.
Members of Rotary can support Dr. Summerfield and local physicians by advocating for health care issues, Supporting the new hospital and supporting infrastructure and partnering for fundraising initiatives.