No Chatham-Kent hospital executives have travelled abroad, boss says

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Chatham-Kent Health Alliance executives have stayed put in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, says president and chief executive officer Lori Marshall.

No executive team members have travelled internationally since the Canada-U.S. border was closed to non-essential visitors March 20, she told the Daily News.

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No Chatham-Kent hospital executives have travelled abroad, boss says Back to video

Two hospital CEOs in southern Ontario have been replaced in the past week for making international trips, despite federal and provincial warnings against such travel.

London Health Sciences Centre axed CEO Dr. Paul Woods on Monday after he made five trips across the border since March, most recently from Dec. 19 to Dec. 25 to see his immediate family. He filed a $2.5-million lawsuit over his firing Wednesday.

Last week, Niagara Health parted ways with CEO Dr. Tom Stewart for his holiday vacation trip to the Dominican Republic.

“I am happy to say that I’ve certainly been here through this time period, if anyone is wondering about me, as well as everyone from my senior team,” Marshall said during a conference call with media. “I am not aware that this would be an issue in Chatham-Kent among the health-care providers.”

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The health alliance has provided travel advice to staff since early in the pandemic, she said.

“Travel must be approved from human resources for up to the (vice-president) level. Certainly VPs would require my approval. Any travel that I might do would require board approval,” Marshall said.

“We have identified that approvals to travel are really only for urgent situations. It’s also clear that any individuals who choose to travel outside of Canada would not be paid for any of their quarantine or isolation time if and when they returned. And if they had not received approval in advance, they could face disciplinary consequences.”

The Municipality of Chatham-Kent is also keeping tabs on its employees’ travel with an online reporting system. If an employee plan to leave the province, they must tell their supervisor and the municipality in advance.

The municipality wants to know in case there are post-travel quarantine issues, spokesperson Jim Blake said. The human resources department will track the departure, return and quarantine periods.

“The municipality … is upholding public health messaging to stay home and only go out for essential services and discouraging any non-essential travel,” Blake said.

If there’s a medical or family emergency that requires travel outside the province, the employee must tell human resources and their supervisor as soon as possible.

“I can’t make any generalized statements as to what we’d do if somebody did travel,” chief administrative officer Don Shropshire said. “That really is a case-by-case basis. Our principal concern is making sure that if people are put at greater risk because of travel, that we take steps to negate any additional spread.”