The NHH COVID-19 Assessment Clinic will move to a new location within the hospital, adjacent to the Emergency Department as of Monday (June 8).
Walk-ins are accepted, but to minimize wait times and support physical distancing it is strongly recommended that you call ahead and schedule your assessment.
The NHH COVID-19 Assessment Centre will be relocated from its current home inside the hospital’s main (front) entrance to a this new location.
You should note that the entry point for the Assessment Centre will continue through the main (front) hospital entrance for the weekend (June 5, 6, 7).
Non-urgent surgeries, procedures and tests were paused at Ontario hospitals on March 19th under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.
But now NHH has been approved to begin resuming these services, so the current spacewill be needed as these services gradually return.
The NHH COVID-19 Assessment Centre was opened swiftly by the hospital team just days after global pandemic was declared.
Since opening on Saturday, March 14th, the Centre has assessed 5,273 virtual and in-person visits.
Of those, swabs to test for COVID-19 have been completed on 3,333 individuals. Demand for COVID-19 assessment is expected to continue.
An expansion of Ontario’s testing strategy was recently announced and testing is now available for:
all those with at least one symptom of COVID-19, even if mild;
asymptomatic people who think they may have been exposed to someone with
suspected or confirmed COVID-19; and
asymptomatic people who may be at risk of exposure to COVID-19 through their
employment.
Linda Davis, President and CEO said in the release on Friday (June 5) that, “When the pandemic arrived, hospitals were challenged by the government to meet localneed for screening and assessment, and divert traffic from Emergency Departments which needed to be protected in the event of high volumes of COVID-19 patients. NHH moved quickly to put this in place and it continues to be needed. We are moving now into a careful and staged resumption of some of our non-essential services. A plan has been devised that will allow us to maintain the COVID-19 Assessment Centre inside the hospital, but in a location that will permit both the Emergency Department and the Ambulatory Care Clinics to function as well. We will closely monitor patient flow in the days following this change, and adjust as needed.”
For more information, please visit www.nhh.ca or follow them on Twitter @NorHillsHosp.