I wanted to take a moment today to thank all physicians in our area for continuing to meet the health needs in our community. Not only are you caring for all the regular health needs of your patients, you are also helping stop the spread of COVID-19 by keeping people as healthy as possible and dealing with concerned and anxious parents and children and other patients. I know you have been doing this under new conditions, such as trying to make clinical assessments using online or phone consultations, while dealing with the daily concerns of keeping the back-office of your practice functioning and viable.
Many of you have put yourselves on the front lines in assessment centres, ICU or other health care settings. Thank you for the professional and personal sacrifices you are making.
I also want to recognize our colleagues who simply can’t practice their speciality or whose role, such as surgeons and anaesthesiologists, aren’t being utilized at this time, and perhaps, for some time to come.
One thing this pandemic has brought to the forefront is how cooperative and collaborative all the sectors of our local health system can be. And how much can be achieved as we work together. While we are seeing a stabilization in community transmission, we are also seeing different pandemic outcomes in our long-term care homes, retirement homes and other congregant settings. While this gives us all pause for concern, the ongoing cooperation of each of us as health care workers is what will see us through.
Thank you for your dedication to practice medicine for the benefit of everyone in our communities. I look forward to celebrating the end of this pandemic and recognizing the efforts each of you have made to bring us all back to a new status of good health.
Dr. N. J. Mercer, MD, MBA, MPH, FRCPC C.Dir.
Medical Officer of Health and CEO
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health
