St. Clair College will be opening a second field hospital to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, this time in Chatham-Kent.
The college announced that it came to an agreement with the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Thursday. According to college President Patti France, the plan is to turn its HealthPlex into a field hospital for 40 patients in the recovery phase of their treatment.
St. Clair is already converting its SportPlex into field hospital in Windsor to prepare for a "worst case scenario." France says the motivation in Chatham-Kent is the same.
"We hope that they don't have to use our sites in Windsor or in Chatham, but to be proactive they wanted to make sure that they were ready from a pandemic perspective to have the space and the beds if a worst case scenario does happen," she says.
Work is already underway, according to France.
"They will be responsible for security and all of that. Obviously we'll do everything we can to help, but that space is already theirs. We're just trying to sort out how we can help them from a facilities perspective and an IT [Information Technology] perspective," added France.
She tells AM800 News the college will continue to do what it can to help.
"We're very proud to support and help Chatham-Kent Health Alliance and all health care workers in this battle against COVID," she says.
France says it will take a week to get the field hospital set up.