The MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson says there is no reason why Interior Health could not release any information about the COVID-19 outbreak at Royal Inland Hospital over the weekend.
Peter Milobar says the lack of information led to a lot of anxiety and plenty of rumours in the community since the outbreak was declared on Friday.
“I think that speaks to what everyone has been calling for is a proper dissemination of the information in a timely fashion so that the public has accurate information, that employees in the hospital have accurate information and that people understand what is going on within their hospital,” he told NL News.
Kamloops Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton says she knows people are anxious but says health officials are doing their best to limit the spread of the virus in the hospital.
“We have limited staff on the weekends and we need to make sure that any information that we release is the most correct,” she said on NL Newsday. “We need to focus our priority on completing the investigation and keeping everyone as safe as we can and then when we have capacity we community it the best to our ability.”
Fenton says the outbreak shows that COVID-19 is in Kamloops and she’s asking people to keep following the public health measures in place.
“Social distancing, not socializing with anyone outside your household, being very diligent with wearing your mask correctly and washing your hands really well, many times throughout the day,” she added.
“Its just as important if not more important now than ever.”
Milobar says Premier Horgan needs to step up
Milobar also tells NL News he has heard reports from health officials across the province who are concerned about a lack of transparency from health officials.
“The one common theme seems to be that their understanding is that the government is telling them not to talk to much,” he said.
“This is where the Premier has to step up, has to make a very clear directive understood across the province so that everyone understands just exactly what the expectation is for information sharing, especially as it relates to institutions like a hospital.”
He is also calling on the Premier, John Horgan, to ensure that the health authorities have the resources they need to consistently release timely information to the public.
“There are people wondering whether their surgeries are getting cancelled or not. There are people already concerned about surgeries before you add in concerns of COVID-19. Its simply not appropriate or good enough,” Milobar said. “Health authorities need to operate with a standardized protocol on how they are sharing this information and simply saying ‘it is a weekend so we don’t have resources’ is not good enough in the middle of a pandemic.”
“It needs to be corrected and it needed to be corrected by the Premier immediately.”
