Vol.20 No.22

Page 1

June 4, 2020 Vol. 20, No. 22

Yourway

South Frontenac Rental Centre

Shop Online

Click & pickup www.homehardware.ca Closed Sundays

Northbrook 613-336-2195

Your independent community newspaper since 1971

Circulation: 12,000 households

We Buy & Sell Firearms! (613) 372-2662

4567 Road 38, Harrowsmith

(L to R) Lions Dale Morey, Louise Day, and Doreen Morey, and Danielle Preston from Providence Care

Wherever, whenever, Lions serve

L

ike everyone else, Lions Clubs have been set back by COVID-19. Organising community events has been the lifeblood of their fund-raising efforts and the social aspect of in-person meetings is the glue that binds clubs together. None of that is possible now, but the clubs keep trucking along regardless. Last week, the Denbigh and Griffith Lions Club

(left) pesented a $1,000 cheque to Hospice Renfrew. Meanwhile the Verona Lions (above) purchased and delivered extra snacks for the frontline workers at Providence Manor in Kingston.

The Storrington Lions (top left) held their second food drive in May for the Battersea Food Bank, but all the packaged food had to be disinfected before being delivered.

It was hard to walk away from patients in need, but re-opening is anything but simple

Medical services coming back to a different reality

D

r. Amir Faisi’s is a dental surgeon who owns two clinics, he Sharbot Lake Dental Clinic and the Mulberry Clinic on Montreal Street in Kingston. They both opened up again this week after being closed since mid-March. But it is anything but business as usual. Long before it was announced early last week that health practitioners, including those providing dental, chiropractic, massage therapy services, could re-open, Dr. Faisi was working to ensure that when the go-ahead came, he would be ready. Given the nature of dentistry, Dr. Faisi knew that the measures that would be required would be extreme, time consuming and expensive to implement. “There were a lot of investments, a lot of planning,” he said in a phone interview this week, “but we have been able to meet or exceed all of the standards” set out by the government of Ontario and the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario. Infrastructure investments, at both clinics, went well beyond putting in plexiglass barriers. They include special ventilators and air purifiers, in treatment rooms, to ensure that the air circulates 10 times per hour. There has also been difficulty, and added costs, obtaining sufficient amounts of Personal Protective Equipment for clinic staff. “I’ll use M-95 masks as an example. When we closed the Sharbot Lake Clinic in March, we gave the masks we had on hand, and other PPE, to the family health team. The M-95 masks that we gave away cost us $26 for 20 masks when we bought them. When we went to replace them in May, they cost up to $275 for 10 masks, and we have had difficulty getting all of the sizes that we need,” he said. The two primary concerns for Dr. Faisi, are for the safety of his patients and the safety of his staff, and ensuring both, in the context of a dental visit, requires a lot of equipment

and a lot of procedures. Everyone entering the building, staff or client, will have a temperature scan. Staff will change their clothes when they come to work and will wear gloves, two masks, and specially designed gowns. A strict disinfection protocol has been developed. Patients are being given a questionnaire over the phone before they can come in. Patients will wait outside, and will be screened again at the front door and escorted directly to the treatment rooms, “We had virtual staff meetings and in person meetings as well as webinars, all to get ready to open,” said Dr. Faisi. The number of patients to be seen each day is much lower than it was before, because time for disinfection between clients has had to be worked into the daily schedule. Now that the clinics are opening, the long backlog of patients requiring more urgent care is being addressed. There have been financial consequences for the two clinics from lost income and extra equipment costs bringing the clinics to a COVID-19 standard, has been substantial. Operating costs will also be increased due to the new protocols as well, and there has been no special funding for dentists or other medical service providers to help cover the short-fall. But aside from a $20 PPE fee for each visit, the pricing at the Sharbot Lake and Mulberry Clinics has not changed. “We are just happy to be back providing care,” Dr. Faisi said. Back to Health Massage Therapy and Wellness Clinic Allison Montgomery, a Registered Massage Therapist, working out of her home clinic on Milburn Road in Battersea, will be reopening on June 15 after a two-month hiatus. It was only in mid-May when she received definitive information about what will be required to re-open. She has a sixpage checklist to go through and protocols to work through, and it is taking some time to prepare. “There is a lot of extra paperwork that will need to be com-

We Are Available For Emergencies 613-372-1346

Leonard’s Heating & Cooling

Hartington • 613-372-1346

Since 1948 leonardfuels@persona.ca

by Jeff Green

pleted, we have had to remove some furniture that is no longer suitable, and obtain the right PPE. It goes on and on,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I had all my ducks in a row before opening.” A lot of her patients are in need of attention after two months. But she needs to do pre-screening, and have consent forms completed, before patients come into her clinic on Milburn Road. “I know we will see less people in a day. They will have to arrive just before their appointment, and we will waive them in from outside, but I’m optimistic that things will go well, and hopefully we won’t be closed down again later in the summer, or in the fall.” She said that she is lucky that, because her clinic has been open for five years now, she has gotten to know people in the community. “Clients have been purchasing gift certificates, knowing I had no income for over two months. And since I announced I am re-opening, there has been an influx of calls. I’m looking forward to the 15th, even though it will take a while to get used to everything.” Sharbot Lake Chiropractic Dr. Gian Kaillon, of Sharbot Lake Chiropractic, is not sure when she will re-open her clinic, which is co-located with the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team. The Family Health Team has instituted their own distancing protocols since mid-March. “There are a lot of factors at play,” said Dr. Kaillon, “including wanting to make sure nothing I do has an impact on the Family Health Team.” She also runs a clinic at the Lakeland Family Health Team in Northbrook, which only opened three weeks before the shut-down.

Zero Turn Twin Cylinder Motor $ 42” Alpha 45/Bi-Weekly 8109 RD. 38, Godfrey, ON $ 613-374-5604 52” Alpha 49/Bi-Weekly sales@ldpowersports.com 48” Alpha MP $61/Bi-Weekly ldpowersports.com 54” Alpha MP $62/Bi-Weekly @Ldpowersports 60” Alpha MP $63/Bi-Weekly

Continued on page 3

$0 Down

Taxes Incl. O.A .C


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.