Dear member of Island Health medical staff
Last week was a tough one. The next few weeks will be even tougher. Like many others, I went into healthcare hoping to serve others and make a positive contribution to society. There have been times in my career when I felt a powerful drive and sense of purpose and others when I felt inadequate to the challenges confronting me. I have experienced this whole spectrum of emotions over the past week.
Dealing with the current pandemic is a new experience for all of us. To help us work together effectively we are trying to provide as much relevant information as possible to medical staff and others without overwhelming people’s e-mail inboxes. Because the situation is evolving so rapidly, briefings by e-mail will continue to go out daily with links to updated content on the medical staff website and statements by the Provincial Health Officer. If you have specific questions, please speak with your site leadership or send them to MedStaffEngagement@islandhealth.ca and we will try to ensure answers are available on the medical staff website.
Please join me in encouraging people to self-isolate and to practice social distancing by following the directive from our Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry:
- Stay home unless absolutely necessary. This means no dinner parties. No shopping. No sports, even outside. Have coffee with a friend online.
- Keep two metres or six feet away from everyone if you must go out.
- Wash your hands frequently.
- Tell your loved ones to do the same.
I am deeply gratified to see people setting aside differences and collaborating in ways I’ve not seen before, from medical students offering to deliver meals to the homes of healthcare workers to recent retirees returning to practice. My hope is that we will emerge from this difficult time with a new sense of collective identity and value our human connections - as medical staff, as members of the Island Health community and as a society - when all too often in the past we have taken these for granted. I ask that all of us continue to work together, support each other and inspire those around us. Individually we often fail. Collectively we can prevail.
Sincerely,
Ian Thompson MD
Acting Chief Medical Officer
Island Health