The former CEO of Horizon Health wanted to return the province’s hospitals to the “red phase” of COVID-19 measures just days before he was fired.
Dr. John Dornan said in an email on July 11 that “a seventh wave of COVID is upon us,” with increased hospitalizations and staff outbreaks.
A Horizon Infectious Disease Control and Infection Protection Committee “recommended moving to the Hospital Red phase next week if the numbers continue to deteriorate,” Dornan wrote in the email obtained by CBC. News.
Dornan wrote that officials “could make that call collectively on Monday or Tuesday of next week,” referring to July 18 and 19.
The transition to the red phase never happened, although the numbers continued to deteriorate.
The following Tuesday, both health authorities reported an increase in weekly COVID-19 admissions, active hospitalizations, hospital outbreaks and staff infections between July 10 and July 16.
Dornan was fired July 15.
A major element of phase red protocols would be a ban on routine visitors seeing patients in hospitals.
In his email, the then-CEO said the move to the red phase was “conditional” on Vitalité and public health agreeing.
But Chief Medical Officer Dr Jennifer Russell said on Wednesday she had no idea why there was no red light.
“I don’t want to speak on behalf of the RHAs. They are the decision makers in this case, so they are the authority on what happens in their own operations,” she said.
Dornan said in the July 11 email that it’s “likely” Horizon will communicate the possibility of a red phase shift “publicly this week as a warning. It’s good to be transparent. “.
It never happened.
At the time of Dornan’s dismissal, Premier Blaine Higgs said a change in leadership was needed to break a “bureaucratic gridlock” in the health care system and push ahead with reforms to address long waiting lists and to congested emergency departments.
Higgs made the changes after a patient died while waiting for care in the emergency department at Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton.
Vitalité’s vice president of medical services, Natalie Banville, replied to Dornan’s July 11 email that she had spoken to CEO France Desrosiers, and health authority officials wanted to “analyze the situation more closely. “.
She said cases were increasing but only two of Vitalité’s 17 admissions were “COVID-related.”
“We need to take a closer look at the epidemiology and the situation in the area before moving to the red phase,” Banville wrote, saying Vitalité’s management would meet on July 12 and respond with a recommendation.
Dornan thanked her and said Horizon would “try to be on the same page.” It’s unclear what Vitality ended up recommending the next day or why Dornan’s replacement, interim CEO Margaret Melanson, didn’t follow through on her plan.
Unlike Dornan, Desrosiers remains in his position as CEO of Vitalité.
Dornan declined an interview request from CBC News about his email. “I have no comments,” he said Wednesday.
In a statement to CBC News, Melanson said Horizon has “gained more knowledge about the virus” during the pandemic and can now adopt “more targeted and flexible” measures while maintaining important services and allowing visitors.
The statement did not explain why Dornan felt differently and favored a full transition to the red phase less than four weeks ago.
Three days after his email and a day before his firing as CEO, Dornan encouraged Horizon staff in an internal memo to “consider setting an example” by masking up in indoor public spaces due to ” escalation” of COVID-19 transmission.
A Department of Health spokesperson said July 18 that Dornan’s dismissal was “unrelated” to the memo.
Horizon and Vitality went into red phase on December 31 during a wave of Omicron cases. They returned to the orange phase on June 20.
Dornan’s July 11 email referred to the arrival of a “seventh wave,” although public health officials in the province have been hesitant to use the term.
Russell told Brunswick News on July 12 that she might not define future case increases as waves.
“I don’t want to call it a surge in the sense that everyone defines it differently. I’m saying it’s an increase in the number of cases,” she told newspapers. “Whether it’s a surge or not, we’re seeing an increase in the level of activity in COVID cases.”
Between July 10 and July 16, the same week Dornan wrote the email and was fired, 30 people were newly admitted to hospitals with COVID-19, up from 15 the previous week.
That number jumped again to 40 people between July 17 and July 23.
The two health authorities had 209 sick employees between July 10 and July 16. This figure rose to 229 the week of July 17-23.
As of July 16, Horizon and Vitalité had 84 active COVID-19 patients hospitalized. It rose to 90 a week later.
The number of new weekly cases fell last week for the first time in weeks. Those figures tracked infections from July 17 to July 23 and officials said it could indicate that the number of hospitalizations, which lag cases by a week or two, will soon peak and also start to fall.
In new figures released Wednesday from July 24 to 30, the number of new weekly cases fell again and the number of hospital admissions and active hospitalizations for COVID-19 fell slightly.
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