Public Health Sudbury plans to address programs neglected during the pandemic

Public Health Sudbury and Districts has dedicated most of its resources to its COVID-19 response, but now the health unit plans to address a backlog of services that grew over the last two years.

"For two years, we have redeployed the majority of our staff and redirected almost 80 per cent of our resources to pandemic response, resulting in a large and growing backlog of public health programs, services and unmet needs," said Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, the Public Health Sudbury and Districts' medical officer of health, in a press release.

Lesley Andrade, a foundational standards specialist with the health unit, told CBC News it will gradually return staff to their departments this year.

"There's the opportunity where staff who were redeployed for COVID 19 response efforts, they can begin to be repatriated back to their home program areas," she said.

Andrade said the health unit is able to start that transition because a large number of people in Greater Sudbury and the surrounding areas are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

As of Feb.18 the health unit reported 88.9 per cent of people ages 12 and over in its service area were fully vaccinated.

Plans to dedicate more health unit resources to other areas also coincide with declining COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario.

As of Feb. 19, there were 329 people in Ontario admitted to intensive care units due to COVID-19. That was 23 fewer people than in the previous week.

Andrade said Public Health Sudbury and Districts will be able to dedicate more staff and resources to four key initiatives in 2022. They are:

• Levelling up opportunities for health;
• Fostering mental health gains;
• Getting children back on track, and;
• Supporting safe spaces

She said those initiatives include programs for prenatal care, dental care for children, focusing more on routine vaccinations, the community drug strategy, and helping to develop healthy environments in the region.

But Andrade added the health unit will continue to dedicate staff and resources to its COVID-19 response and vaccination clinics. She added the health unit will be ready to pivot if the situation changes.

"So certainly we will always be ready to respond if a future variant appears and we see greater outbreaks or greater cases," she said. "We will certainly respond and staff may need to be redeployed again."

Andrade said the redeployment of staff to areas outside of the COVID-19 response will be gradual and will occur throughout the year.