Northland District Health Board department of medicine head Lucille Wilkinson is pulling out all the stops to help Northland's hospitals prepare for the full impact of Covid-19. Photo / Liz Inch
Northland District Health Board department of medicine head Lucille Wilkinson is pulling out all the stops to help Northland's hospitals prepare for the full impact of Covid-19. Photo / Liz Inch
As 'Doctor's Day' was celebrated across the world yesterday, Northland doctor Lucille Wilkinson is continuing her key role in the region's fight against Covid-19.
Wilkinson, the Northland District Health Board department of medicine head, has been busy setting up the region's clinical response to ensure its medical institutions can cope with the expected rise in Covid-19 patients.
Some of these response measures included hospitals' capacity to house more patients and appropriate training for staff to ensure they could handle different scenarios as they appeared.
"We need to be ready for more patients with respiratory illness, more patients who need to be isolated from other patients and more people that might need a higher level of care with severe respiratory illness," Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson, a mother of three, felt it was time to show some Northland spirit in the face of adversity. Photo / Supplied
"This in turn means that we need training for our staff, particularly in using personal protection equipment and to understand what support patients might need if they become unwell."
Wilkinson, a mother of three, acknowledged how challenging this time was for the medical community, but said she had been encouraged by the community's response.
"The healthcare community is understandably anxious about what might happen, but are also very proactive in preparing as best we can.
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"Everyone has been incredibly willing to put in an enormous amount of effort to plan for what might be need to keep Northlanders safe and healthy."
Whangārei hospital will need to be ready when the case numbers start increasing faster. Photo / File
While she accepted how difficult it was to know if Northland's medical institutions were completely ready for the full impact of Covid-19, Wilkinson said, "we are as ready as we can be".
Wilkinson implored the public to be kind to Northland's medical staffers, who had made great personal sacrifices to continue working.
"I think we are all going to need to be very strong during this time. We will all need to show a Northland spirit to enable our people in our region to be as well as possible through this event."
