Christmas parties are linked to service breakdowns at hospitals across the province in recent days, as workers contract COVID-19 and are forced to self-isolate.
• Read also: COVID-19 outbreak among staff at Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis
Anonymous sources confirmed to Journal that the almost complete closure of the operating room at Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal would be in part linked to a Christmas party in a bar last weekend.
At the invitation of the head nurse of this department, several employees gathered in a bar in the city center. On social media, several photos show up to 10 people with close contact and without a mask, even though they weren’t sitting at a table.
The spokesperson for the Integrated University Health and Social Services Center (CIUSSS) of the Center-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Jean Nicolas Aubé, however refused to confirm the holding of a Christmas party instigated by a manager.
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Five employees are infected, he said. He adds that all staff are currently screened “to close the door to the virus”. The hospital is safe, assures Mr. Aubé.
There is only one operating room left open. This almost total closure of the unit will have an impact on around forty patients, in addition to 11 elective surgeries which are postponed until January.
No negligence
Via Messenger, surgeon Amélie Foucault from Notre-Dame Hospital told the Journal that she did not believe “that there was negligence”.
For Jean Nicolas Aubé, this is an example of “employees used to observing super strict rules” who were unfortunately overtaken by the great contagiousness of the virus. By this time, the province was already seeing more than 2,000 new cases daily.
Disagree with this party
A health care worker, on condition of anonymity, however, maintains that this outbreak is causing discord within the department, in particular because employees were not comfortable with holding a Christmas party.
On Tuesday, the CIUSSS sent an internal memo to staff to encourage employees to avoid Christmas gatherings in order to preserve care.
At the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Lévis, on the South Shore of Quebec, an outbreak affects 27 employees among the radiology team.
These cases occurred following a Christmas rally, confirms the spokesperson for the CISSS Chaudière-Appalaches, Mireille Gaudreau.
“The infected employees are all taken out of work and isolated at home,” she wrote, noting that this is more than a third of the 80-employee department.
She adds that the Christmas party was “nevertheless carried out in accordance with the instructions in force at the time. “
“Only certain cases deemed medically non-urgent have been postponed,” said Ms. Gaudreau, indicating that a reorganization of services makes it possible to avoid the worst.
“In front of all strangers, caution is required”, launches virologist Benoît Barbeau, about Christmas parties.
According to him, the organizers must review the modalities, whether to cancel them, reduce the size or hold an event outside.
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