Vice-Chair Election Results, COVID@home & Vaccination
Hi Everyone,
We've hit the most difficult time in this pandemic, while there's hope with vaccines allowing us to see light at the end of the tunnel, we are entering the worst wave yet with record high hospitalizations. I've attached a memo from Matthew Anderson, the President & CEO of Ontario Health notifying us of the ramp down of elective surgeries and non-urgent acute care activities effective Monday April 12th.
Vice-Chair Election Results
On a brighter note, the Primary Care Association Vice-Chair elections went very well with a voter turnout of 69%. Congratulations to Dr. Dhar Doobay, our newly elected Vice-Chair! Dr. Doobay has been a member of our Primary Care Advisory Council and the OHT Mental Health & Addictions (MHA) Action Team. As Vice-Chair he will also represent Primary Care on the OHT Core Leadership Council and take on Co-Chair responsibilities on the Centralized Referral Working Group under the MHA Action Team.
COVID@Home
As COVID cases swell, Ontario Health is interested in Primary Care assistance to monitor our COVID+ patients at home. This stems from a successful pilot out of McMaster where close community monitoring led to reductions in ED visits and hospitalization. Attached is the COVID@Home toolkit, which includes a link to order O2sat monitors if you would like to participate. We recognize not all practices have capacity to support this, so we are working with York Region Public Health, Markham Stouffville Urgent Care Clinic and Markham FHT to identify COVID+ patients locally and provide appropriate support during their illness in a way that keeps their primary care provider informed and does not negate capitated model family physicians.
COVID Vaccination Eligibility
Primary Care leaders have been advocating strongly that we should NOT be writing letters to qualify patients for vaccine. York Region Public Health is working on a self-attestation process for those with chronic disease. Prioritization details are available on the Ontario vaccination plan website, including the highest, high and at risk chronic disease sub-categorization: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/ontarios-covid-19-vaccination-plan. Patients should be encourage to check their local Public Health Unit website for updates, for York Region this is available at york.ca/covid19vaccine and for Durham Region at https://www.durham.ca/en/health-and-wellness/covid-19-vaccines.aspx.
COVID Vaccination in Primary Care Offices
Congrats to Health For All FHT for being on of the first primary care offices in York Region to start administering Astrazeneca! If your York Region office is interested in administering Astrazeneca and you have not completed the readiness survey, please have one member of your office complete it here: https://surveys.york.ca/?e=225905&h=F472E49F0B92BF3&l=en. There is a Community of Practice led by Dr. David Kaplan for offices delivering COVID-19 vaccine, and their next meeting is Tuesday April 13th, 8am - 9am, with a focus on sharing lessons learned and helping new practices launch their in-office vaccination campaign: Registration HERE, and they will have an ongoing Thursday series starting April 22nd from 8 am - 9am: Registration HERE.
Wishing you a safe and happy weekend!
Em
