Message on behalf of Dr. Ian Fraser, Chief of Staff at Michael Garron Hospital
“On Thursday, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario issued a memo suggesting that anyone with travel history outside of Canada in the past 14 days should self-isolate, unless they are critical workers required to maintain hospital operations. We have followed the advice in this memo as we keep pace with the current needs and demands of the hospital.
At Michael Garron Hospital (MGH), we are maintaining our current approach of enhanced screening measures for staff, physicians, patients, visitors and every individual entering the building. This approach is focused on symptoms and not travel as there is confirmed community transmission of COVID-19 in Toronto, as cited by Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s chief medical officer of health. People who have not travelled may now be at similar risk for having COVID-19 as those who have travelled.
We are asking asymptomatic health care workers returning from international travel to return to work based on several robust safety measures and strategies we have put in place from the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. This approach is consistent with our healthy workplace policy and in alignment with several of our partner hospitals in Toronto.
Hospitals are complex organizations that need many essential functions to maintain operations, from frontline patient care providers to food services, security, diagnostics, pharmacy, information technology, facilities, maintenance, leaders, and so many more. We are therefore adopting the policy that all health care workers are critical for hospital operations. Thank you to our incredible health care teams at MGH for their continued dedication and commitment to keeping our people and community safe.”