Haliburton opens COVID-19 assessment centre 

 

The
newly opened COVID-19 assessment centre at the Haliburton Family
Medical Centre on Gelert Road accepted its first patients on Tuesday,
March 31.

 

Patients are being seen by appointment only and must first
complete the province’s online or Telehealth Ontario’s telephone
assessment process. Those who are advised through that process to go to a
community assessment centre will then call the Haliburton Family
Medical Centre to arrange an appointment at 705-457-1212.
“The
assessment clinic isn’t for anybody who wants to just be checked for
COVID-19, it’s basically for people who have symptoms and have had
potential exposure,” Dr. Norm Bottum of the Haliburton Highlands Family
Health Team said.

 

The clinic will be operating from noon to 4 p.m.
Monday to Friday and provide assessments in 30-minute intervals.
Patients will drive their vehicle from County Road 21 into the high
school parking lot where paramedics confirm patient appointments and
that a self-assessment has been completed, then on to the medical centre
parking lot where health professionals conduct the drive-thru
assessment.
The COVID-19 self-assessment can be found at covid-19.ontario.ca/self-
assessment.

 

Dr.
Bottum said a review of the patient’s history will be done, oxygen
levels and temperature will be taken. The patient may be asked to go
home and self-isolate or they may be asked to go to the hospital for
further assessment and chest X-ray. Swabs may be taken, but not everyone
will have one done.
“It’s not the most comfortable thing in the
world, but it’s not overly painful, it just tickles the hell out of your
nose,” he said, referring to the COVID-19 swab being inserted high into
the nasal cavity. “The immediate response is to pull your head back.”
They also have throat swabs, which may be used.
He believes results from the test will be known within 72 hours.

 

Anyone with severe symptoms should call 911 and let the dispatcher know about the potential for COVID-19.
Setting up the assessment centre outdoors helps reduce the risk that the virus will spread.
Not
everyone is being tested for the coronavirus in part because of
processing capacity of Public Health Ontario and in part because of the
availability of test kits.
“Basically at this point, only the
patients that are the most unwell or at highest risk are going to be
swabbed, but hopefully we will liberalize that over the next couple
weeks,” Dr. Bottum said.
He wasn’t sure about how many testing swabs
were available, but said for now they can do up to 12 in an afternoon at
the centre to ensure they aren’t depleting the hospital of its supply.
“Hopefully,
again, that capacity will increase. As we have more of a sense of how
many people we have to test we may expand the hours of the assessment
clinic. It may actually run for the better  part of the day. As we get
better at it, we may be able to shorten up the appointment times so we
can get more people through more quickly,” he said.

 As more tests become available, the parameters may change to include more people as time goes on.
“If
people don’t qualify this week for an assessment [they] might actually
qualify at the end of the week or next week,” he said.

 

The assessment centre is a step toward returning to life before the pandemic.
“We’re
sort of moving into the next phase of this. First step is to isolate
everybody, keep up your social distancing. Those recommendations are
still present, but how are we going to regain our autonomy and start to
move around freely if we’re suspicious of our neighbours having COVID?
As we can sort of isolate positive cases – because that’s what this is
about, is isolating the people that have tested for COVID – if we do a
better job of that then we can [get back to] moving around with more
freedom and confidence,” he said.

 

Dr. Bottum said it’s likely that
Haliburton County will see cases of COVID-19 – there are some tests that
are out awaiting results – which is why it’s important to practice
social distancing: limiting time in public spaces to only essential
trips, keeping a two-metre distance from other people, coughing or
sneezing into your elbow or a tissue, and washing your hands regularly
and thoroughly.
Those who have recently travelled outside Canada,
have been in contact with someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19 or
who are experiencing symptoms should self-isolate for 14 days. Those
with symptoms should seek medical attention over the phone from their
health provider.
Information about the assessment centre will also soon be added to the Haliburton Highlands Family Health Team website: hhfht.com. Telehealth Ontario can be contacted at 1-866-797-0000 and the HKPR Health Unit’s number is 1-866-888-4577, ext. 5020.