When Premier Doug Ford scolded the province’s local medical officers for falling to test more people he didn't name names.
“There’s certain medical officers in certain jurisdictions — now keep in mind we have 34 chief medical officers across the province — some just aren’t performing. I’m calling them out right now. You’ve got to pick up the pace,” Ford said in a news conference.
Ford wouldn’t name the medical officers, but said “they know who they are” and added that he would be having a call with them over the coming days.
See: Was our Health Unit a target during Doug Ford's testing rant?
And: ‘Pick up the pace’: Doug Ford says some local medical officers falling behind on COVID-19 testing
That was back on May 5.
Perhaps the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit didn't get the message.
Numbers compiled for BayToday show the local health unit lagging significantly behind our northern neighbours.
The local health unit numbers fall far behind other northern Ontario health units.
While the local numbers are the fewest, our neighbours in Temiskaming lead the pack, with 6,197 tests per 100.000 population. That compares to just 5,067 for the North Bay Parry Sound District.
BayToday requested a telephone interview with Dr. Jim Chirico, Medical Officer of Health for the North Bay and Parry Sound Health Unit but was told he was too busy with meetings over the past two days to answer questions. BayToday was told instead to submit questions in advance and a reply would be emailed back from their Public Relations Dept.
However Mayor Al McDonald did respond, saying while the numbers in this district are lower than other northern districts, "our district is above the provincial average per 100,000 (5860.9 per 100K vs Ontario average 5363.7 per 100,000K)
"Everyone agrees more testing should be done including myself. Anyone can be tested. The assessment Centre is open 7 days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m."
McDonald points out testing is voluntary but some are reluctant.
"There is no need to go into the hospital. Some are afraid to enter the hospital because of COVID-19 but the Hospital is safe. No appointment or referral is necessary."
We wanted to ask Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli for comment, given Premier Ford's concerns, on the low numbers, but he instead issued a statement.
"As the province carefully and gradually reopens the economy, our government is implementing the next phase of its COVID-19 testing strategy to detect and quickly stop the spread of the virus. Testing will now be available to more people in more locations across the province, including at any one of the 39 assessment centres in Northern Ontario, the most of any region in Ontario."
The local health unit has also been in hot water recently because of a breach of privacy, releasing the personal information of people being tested.
See: Privacy breach on Health Unit website was 'mistake that should not have happened'
"The dashboard contained information related to the number of COVID-19 tests and confirmed cases in the local community. Inadvertently, personal identifying information was made accessible through the dashboard" says a news release.
Information that was accidentally made accessible was first and last name, municipality, unique identifying number, testing date and location, and the test result It may also have included a telephone number.
