Healthcare quarterly (Toronto, Ont.)
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A new decade often begins with new life, new relationships and new purposes. Unfortunately, the start of this decade has been anything but, thanks to the rather unprecedented global crisis that has rapidly taken over our lives. COVID-19 - which seemed to be just a flu-like infection spreading modestly in mainland China - has suddenly became a pandemic that has crashed economies and broken health systems worldwide.
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As a chief nurse in Ontario during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, I never thought I would experience anything even remotely similar, let alone exponentially worse, in my lifetime. Seventeen years and almost 17,000 km later, the COVID-19 crisis feels eerily similar in many ways, and completely different in others.
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Primary care is the first line of defence in healthcare, particularly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the London-Middlesex region of Ontario, a critical shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) was identified among primary care physicians (PCPs). ⋯ In response to the PPE shortage in COVID-19, our efforts evolved into a complex adaptive system, supported by an organizational body with a pre-existing communication infrastructure, to great success. Our scope extended beyond simple PPE provision to PCPs. Furthermore, our initiative established a framework for a centralized response to PPE shortage in Ontario Health West.