By David Fortier
Bristol hospital staff with the assistance of school nurses have been managing the lines of cars each morning at the coronavirus collection station so that people aren’t too disappointed if they are cut off, said hospital spokesman Christopher Boyle, in a phone conversation this noon.
Next week the hospital will announce that it has received a donation of new molecular testing equipment that will produce results in a couple of hours.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is still a concern, he said, especially isolation gowns.
As people start lining at the collection station, sometimes as early as 6 a.m., Boyle said , “to help be more proactive, what we are doing is having a school health nurse going car to car to make sure people have all their paperwork,” Boyle said.
The nurses, from our community schools, have been made available through an arrangement with the Bristol-Burlington Health District.
It’s been a week since Bristol Health has limited its collection of coronavirus tests to 40 a day, opening 8 a.m. Monday thru Saturday. The station is closed Sundays, and as happened this Monday, when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
“People understand there are no free passes,” Boyle said, “This is a shared sacrifice. We are all in this together.”
Boyle said Bristol police officers have been onsite as well.
“They have been wonderful with their support,” Boyle said. “It doesn’t hurt to have that presence.”
Boyle said that there have not been any issues and added that he hadn’t expected there would be.
However, Boyle said, a concern remains with the number of test kits being so limited and no guarantee when more will become available.
“We are kind of doing it day by day here,” he said.
The hospital has now administered around 2,000 test since March 13, when testing started, he added. The tests have been and are distributed among those who line up for tests, inpatient and emergency patients, and employees who may have been exposed or who are showing symptoms of Covid-19.
At the end of March, Bristol Health president and CEO Kurt Barwis tested positive for coronavirus. He quarantined at his home, returning to work last week.
Boyle said that the hospital has been stockpiling some PPE items, such as masks, but still has a shortage of isolation gowns, not so much because they are not available but because of costs.
“The gowns, once 39 cents a piece, are now going for $3 each,” he said.
“Some of that is criminal, what you hear going on,” he added.
Overall, he said the hospital will continue collecting PPE because he doesn’t think things have peaked.
Looking ahead to the future, Boyle said, an announcement is pending about new molecular testing equipment, made possible from a generous donation, that will allow the hospital to turn around tests in a couple of hours.
David Fortier is a Bristol native and publisher of The Bristol Edition. His wife, Mary Fortier, is the city councilwoman representing the 3rd District.