The Chief of Staff at Windsor Regional Hospital is welcoming the provincial announcement of $52.5-million to recruit, retain and support more health care workers.
"This is the right time to try to put more money into the system because we do know that we're headlining into our second wave," said Dr. Wassim Saad. "If the first pandemic of the century was an indication, we do know that the second wave is likely to be harder on the healthcare system on the total number of cases, on the mortality, than the first wave was."
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Dr. Saad says there are a few factors as to why a second wave is typically worse than the first.
"So you get this what we call pandemic fatigue, it becomes relaxed when you flatten the curve and you come out of the first wave and then there is sort of a rebound effect which we're seeing right now," he says. "In fact, 60 per cent of new cases are in people under the age of 40 because young people have had it, they're starting to interact with each other and socialize."
From a healthcare perspective, Dr. Saad believes we are better prepared because all the policies and procedures are already in place from the first wave, but says the general public has a responsibility.
"You could have a perfect healthcare system that is ready to accommodate anything and it could still be overwhelmed if people are reckless with guidelines and recommendations and continue to spread the virus in the community," he adds. "Now I'm not saying that's what's happening, it was a mathematical certainty that we were going to have a second wave, we're in it right now, the real question is, how busy is it going to be?"
Details of Monday's announcement by Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Health Christine Elliott includes money to add over 800 nurses for the health system in areas of need across the province and funds for the Personal Support Worker (PSW) training funds to continue training PSWs in the home and community care and long-term care sectors.
The government also said it will continue to update visitor policies for congregate care settings, including long-term care, that promote family and caregiver involvement to support better care and reduce isolation.