A Letter to our Community about COVID-19

This is a difficult time for everyone and we hope you are keeping well both physically and mentally. We want to assure you Waypoint has measures in place to protect the health of our patients, clients, staff and visitors. While things may be done a bit differently during this time, please know that our team remains dedicated to treating everyone with care and respect. 

Some of the steps we have taken to ensure everyone’s safety include:
   * Initiating the Emergency Response Plan which includes twice daily meetings to ensure we are up to date on
      public health recommendations.
   * Suspending all visits to Waypoint effective March 17, 2020 with the exception of visits for compassionate
      reasons including palliative circumstances. Professional visits including legal counsel or specialist care will
      continue. 
   * Reducing entry points to the hospital and screening everyone who enters the hospital for travel history and
      symptoms of illness.
 
If you have a loved one being cared for in our hospital, rest assured our excellent and compassionate staff will continue to look after them, and telephone communication remains available. Note that you may experience interruptions in our phone service. If this happens, please try again until your call is successful. And while most large gatherings, groups and activities have been cancelled, vocational services and on unit patient activities are still running with social distancing and other important infection control practices such as hand washing in place. Our teams have initiated virtual appointments where possible and are also looking at digital and other creative alternatives to keep patients and clients engaged and active.

We would like to take this time to send out words of thanks:
   * To our staff and hospital partners for their unwavering commitment to care for our patients and clients,
      keeping services running and our facilities clean, maintained and safe
   * To our patients, clients and families for your patience and understanding while daily routines are
      interrupted and we strive to continue to deliver essential treatment and care
   * To our donors for continuing to believe in our hospital and offering support and words of encouragement
   * To our partners and stakeholders, we are all in this together. We will remember all you do for us and look
      forward to working through this together and coming out even stronger together when we get back to
      business as usual. 

Our hospital is monitoring new information on a daily basis and all updates are posted on our website. We encourage you to stay informed and review recommendations from experts at Public Health and the Ontario Ministry of Health frequently. 

Continue practicing social distancing, we know it is difficult, but it’s critical in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Compassion and kindness will be so important in the days ahead and we are seeing many examples of this in our hospital and community already. We echo the words of our healthcare and other partners that our neighbours, including vulnerable individuals, need our support and kindness at this time. 

We will get through this together, as a team and as a community. Stay safe and be well. 


Carol Lambie
Waypoint President and CEO