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Cell Phone Stun Gun
Personal protection for you and your Family during a Pandemic
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Part Three
The weekend
is an unusual, uneasy time in the city. Local news is increasingly focused on the flu. It's infuriating that A/California is STILL in the mix. The hospital can hardly afford to test everyone coming in with flu-like symptoms for H5H1. Even more confusing, respiratory syctitial virus has been on the increase over the past month & drug resistant pneumonia, contracted in the community is still 'out there'. This is only complicating diagnostics at the 2 emergency rooms as many seniors are presenting with what could either be exacerbations of their primary conditions and/or various flu-like or other respiratory symptoms.
The medical community are not happy puppies. In theory, the hospital could be expanded to take another 100 beds/gurneys but there are no health care workers to staff them as the hospital is currently operating. There is a defunct military hospital on base with a capacity for 75 beds - if a higher than usual level of crowding is planned for. The problem is - someone admitted for what appears to be flu who has something else MAY catch flu on top of what they already have. Dr. Gemmel is blunt - yes that may cost some lives but not managing to open beds & staff them will cost even more.
The medical association has urged local doctors, especially those in group practices to try to free up at least 1 doctor per group practice for hospital duties. To do this, they urge clinic staff to phone in any & all ongoing prescription refills for patients to the appropriate pharmacies. Patients are encouraged to pick up several months worth of prescriptions as quickly as possible. If they can't pay now - pick them up anyway - that can be settled after. The province, in conjunction with the feds, authorizes the same procedure for those on long term narcotics & patients begin picking up these prescriptions as meds come in to the drugstores. Pharmacists are given discretion - with long term patients, to issue refills & again, the paperwork & legalities will be sorted out later. Unfortunately, an extra month of most meds are all that can be made available to most patients until more are received from manufacturers. Those are operating as best they can on a 24 hour basis.
By Monday, an extra 46 doctors are freed up to begin shifts at the hospitals & long term care facilities which are seeing cases of both A/California & A/MyTho. It's hoped by week's end, another 20 or so can be freed up & the medical association suggests some of these be deployed to local outlying towns - in hopes of saving trips to town for care that is already in short supply. The media assist this effort by frequently reminding residents of Kingston that medical care is in short supply & should be sought only when really necessary.
The university & community college have been asked to provide a list of their students in medicine, nursing, radiology, lab work & any health or emergency services programs. Depending on their level of training, the students will be tasked at the hospitals, relieving more experienced & more highly trained staff. The local representative of the provincial nursing association, long in the tooth & very experienced finds herself in a bit of a pissing contest with the heads of the nursing schools at the college & universities. The schools are teaching comprehensive nursing - one nurse does everything for her patients.
The local rep is hearing the heads of the schools who want their students to continue working on this basis. That, in HER experience is a waste of time & training. What SHE is going to see happens is that a nurse on a ward will yes, have primary responsibility for her patients. But students will handle hygiene bedpans & other chores requiring less training. The nurses & students who have excellent skills in one or more areas will handle those. Some suction upper airways better than most - guess what they're doing? Any nurse that can start IVs on 'road kill' is assigned to the IV team & may also help with drawing blood for the lab. The lab techs' time is better spent analysing samples.
Some students will be trained to field phone calls at the medical hot line for flu. Right now, that is being staffed by RNs - a waste of assets. Medical & nursing students will field calls & will pass on any critical ones to RNs or doctors who are authorized to recommend patients be brought to emergency. Medical & nursing students, as much as possible, will be used on the flu wards. Care there is expected to be fairly basic but time consuming - basic hygiene, assurance of hydration & helping those who can - eat. People each shift, will constantly go through the wards, disinfecting anything that doesn't move. Some students will be working in the laundry & kitchen. This is not a time for anybody to be fussy. In any case, the legal decision to declare health care workers essential services was extended to cover students.
One of the transient barracks at the military base will be turned over to any student requiring housing for the duration. They'll be fed there too & transported to & from their places of duty. The barracks are ready, the kitchen is ready to provide meals & transport will be handled by reserve force troops.
The base is also prepared to provide personnel to keep the hospitals secure - there have already been a few incidents outside emergency. Currently, all doors in & out of the hospital are locked save for one door for staff & the emergency room. Twice, parents have brought kids to emergency & insisted they be seen immediately, bypassing the triage system of calling a doctor or a hotline first. A security guard outside emergency was slightly injured in the ensuing scuffle & the city considers it best to have small groups of troops present. They hope the mere presence of soldiers will make it clear to people that this is an increasingly serious situation & the rough mechanisms currently in place cannot be bypassed without risking the wellbeing of many people.
People still don't seem to really be getting it. With only a few hundred, few have been personally effected. They may know someone who may have it or for the rare few, be living with someone who has it. For most this is turning into nothing more than a major pain in the butt - can't rent videos for the kids who can't go to their normal activities because they're cancelled. And who was the brain dead moron who closed the bingo halls??? As for the schools being closed? Don't get parents started. That's stupid, idiotic & completely NOT NECESSARY! This is Canada - we're got antivirals & other drugs. A few old people will die as happens most years. The hospital is making a big deal out of nothing.
A number of people quietly hit the grocery stores, drug stores & medical supply stores, stocking up on groceries & what they consider necessary supplies. By Sunday very few OTC cold/flu remedies are left on the shelves, masks & gloves are essentially gone & bottled water & toilet paper, (?!?), are out of stock almost everywhere. Canned soups, jello, pudding, electrolyte replacement mixes & other easy to prepare foods are also flying off the shelves. Needless to say, items in the modern food groups - fast, frozen, instant & takeout are big sellers. So are chips, pop & other snack foods. A couple of TV stations are running almost solid movies between news casts - mercifully, the local CBC channel is running a lot of Disney & other kid flicks.
There's a news conference Monday night - held an hour before the six o'clock news. Cases are thought to number about 400 right now - most will have contracted the flu before curtailments in public activities were announced. The head of public health firmly states this is BEGINNING & Kingston can expect considerably more cases in the next several weeks. The provisions worked out in various meetings are highlighted & it's stated that details will be provided in a special section of the Whig-Standard tomorrow. Additionally, that edition will be available free of charge.
Symptoms are summed up again as are indications that patients are suffering more than 'run of the mill' flu. Dr. Gemmel points out that other respiratory viruses including A/California flu are still very much present - people should not panic if they start feeling ill as the chances are that they have one of these other ailments. More telephone lines have been added to the flu hotline - the city is up to 25 people answering calls now & once again, people are urged to call that number first. The number is 546-1358 or 546-1FLU.
The doctor estimates the city may have 1000 cases by Friday of which 100 may require hospitalization. He details the staffing arrangements made & mentions that other essential hospital services are still operating but waiting times may be longer. With the city having 2 emergency rooms, all suspected flu cases are being sent to one while other cases are being attended at another. Once central walk in clinics is dealing with cases which don't QUITE require emergency level services. If people suspect a simple broken bone or other conditions where care is required they should consider going there. Emergency should be reserved for REAL emergency type situations. Those are summarized.
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