Horizon Health continues to deal with hundreds of staff absences because of COVID-19 illness and isolation.
CEO Dr. John Dornan said COVID-19 added to their staff absences at a rate that “could have hurt them more.”
He said the province’s two regional health authorities (RHAs) worked with the Department of Health on contingencies which helped them deal with understaffed units.
Dornan said one strategy has been to bring staff members back to work as quickly as possible, recognizing their need to recover and not infect their colleagues or other patients.
“We’ve been bringing people back after five days with a negative point of care test, asymptomatic. So, that lessens the burden of someone who’s off,” Dornan said during an announcement in Saint John on Monday.
Dornan said they are starting to see more staff come back this week than are going out for COVID reasons. He thinks they are “on the tail end of it.”
Health Minister Dorothy Shephard said extensive planning took place in January to help hospitals cope with the sixth wave.
“The department has been engaged with the RHA’s on a daily basis, multiple times a day, to make sure we can be there to support their needs,” Shephard said.
