COVID-19 GGH Update March 28












Cupcakes, pitas, fruit…our community wants to feed us! But, as everyone knows, there are strict rules about food sharing so we’ve been encouraging individually wrapped items rather than, for example, pizzas. We’ve had a couple of donations of 100 coupons for a pizza and will be figuring out a process to distribute those.

Recruitment campaign

The hospital is launching a significant campaign to recruit almost 200 people for a wide variety of positions. Based on pandemic predictions, hospitals need to plan to have up to 30% of its staff unavailable due to illness or self-isolation requirements. We will be asking people in our community to step up and join us in making a difference. It is essential that we recruit additional temporary part-time and full-time staff in both clinical and non-clinical roles. One of the new listings will be Health Care Aids.  We are hoping to recruit a large number to support nursing staff on the units.  These health care aids will be an additional resource and will be able to complete activities of daily living and other basic care tasks for patients.

Calling in sick

This is just a reminder to call both your Director and Employee Health Services and to follow our Absence Notification Process.

Hand hygiene

Staff have really stepped to complete their Hand Hygiene eLearning module. Currently, we’re at 73% compliance for all staff- 87% full-time staff, 80% part-time staff and 40% for casual.  Thanks to those who have completed and if you haven’t, please do asap.

Did you know that certain fingernail practices can prevent hands from getting fully clean? In fact, there’s a GGH policy just for fingernails.

Provincial Planning and Actions

Recently, Ontario Health shared some of what it’s done and a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes planning going on. Some of their activities include:

  • Increasing testing capacity
  • Investing in enhanced bed capacity in hospitals
  • Significantly increased Telehealth capacity
  • Address shortages in critical supplies and equipment

For more details, click here.