Given we are just over a month into 2022, I must start by wishing you all a wonderful New Year with best wishes of health, happiness and hope for the months ahead. We are still optimistic that at some point through 2022, we will return to some normalcy and transition out of this enduring and exhausting pandemic.
Although our hopes for a different 2021 didn’t turn out exactly as planned, we can still reflect with pride on the way in which the GBGH team has risen to countless challenges. We still have much to look forward to in 2022 as I hope to be able to share promising news this year.
For now though, our priority list continues to be dominated by the pandemic. Despite all our collective best efforts, we are dealing with the most challenging period of the pandemic to date. We have made the difficult decision to once again limit visitation as a safety measure and have mandatory vaccination policies for team members and visitors.
The prolonged duration of stressful times, combined with the overwhelming COVID burden, is certainly taking its toll on the GBGH team. We are seeing soaring rates of COVID illness in our community and our team has not gone unscathed. Like hospitals across the province, GBGH is experiencing unprecedented staffing pressures due to illness. As mandated by the province, GBGH is once again reducing non-urgent and elective services. Ramping down these surgeries and procedures is never ideal but is intended to serve two purposes – increase bed capacity and preserve staffing to assist where needed throughout hospitals.
GBGH will continue to make these important decisions with the best interests of our patients, team members and community in mind. Even with the current challenges, we continue our steadfast commitment to be here for you when you need us. We will get through this together and we will always find a way to continue providing exceptional care to our community – even in times of great adversity.
Gail Hunt
President & CEO
Georgian Bay General Hospital