Viljoen says local doctors have ‘averted disaster’
After being hailed as heroes for their efforts to keep their patients and communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, Niagara Health chief of staff Dr. Johan Viljoen said “there’s no thanks anymore” for doctors and medical staff.
Viljoen recalled the kindness the community had shown for physicians shortly after the pandemic began, including parades of emergency responders visiting Niagara hospitals to show support, “big buckets full of flowers that somebody left for physicians and nurses to take home with them,” and a pizza truck that arrived at the hospital one night to give free meals to hospital staff as they left at the end of the day.
Lately however, he said doctors are increasingly dealing with belligerent people rather than being given flowers and pizza.
As the third Doctors’ Day since the pandemic began arrives on Sunday — recognizing the commitment of physicians to improving the health of their communities — Viljoen said he hopes to make his colleagues feel “enormously appreciated” again by reminding physicians of the gratitude most people still have for them, as the pandemic continues.
Niagara Region Public Health reported 105 known new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, and 1,922 active infections, while Niagara Health reported 79 patients being treated for the virus, including six in intensive care.
Viljoen said he recently spoke to a colleague who self-isolated for two weeks in his basement, after testing positive for the virus.
“He didn’t see his kids or his wife for two weeks. They basically left a plate of food for him at the top of the stairs three times a day,” Viljoen said. “One of his kids had a birthday which he missed, one of his kids had a dance recital.”
Viljoen said it’s one of thousands of similar stories of self-sacrifice doctors have experienced in the past two years, “and if I add all those stories up, it’s a lifetime of lost memories.”
“That shows you, to some degree at least, the human cost that physicians and nurses have put in,” he said. “They paid a really high price. I can never express enough gratitude and admiration for them.”
Viljoen said medical staff have paid an emotional toll as well, when unable to prevent the deaths of patients.
“I have seen the pain on physicians and nurses faces when they did lose patients,” he said.
Viljoen said he hopes Doctors’ Day — it’s also celebrated as National Physicians’ Day, marking the May 1 birthday of Dr. Emily Stowe, the first woman to practise medicine in Canada — will give the community an opportunity to pause and reflect on the sacrifices physicians have made.
“My wish for Doctors’ Day is that everyone in the community take just a moment and considers what did doctors do over the last two and a half years. They have averted disaster,” he said. “The losses are a whole hell of a lot smaller than they would have been without these doctors.”
Viljoen said he also hopes to remind his colleagues to look back at what they accomplished.
“That is the stuff that Orders of Canada are made of. It is amazing,” he said. “These are men and women who have done unbelievable things.”
In a media release, Niagara Health president Lynn Guerriero also shared her gratitude for the hospital system’s physicians.
“Wave after wave, they have continued to answer the call to provide safe, compassionate, quality health care,” she said. “We are so appreciative of who they are and what they do every single day.”
Several Niagara landmarks will be illuminated with blue light this weekend in recognition of Doctors’ Day, including Niagara Falls and Welland’s Bridge 13 on Sunday, while Brock University’s Schmon Tower will be lit with blue light on Saturday night.