Doctor calls for more regulation after COVID exposure at Regina clinic

Regina doctor Tomi Mitchell finally got the call she had been dreading since March. Earlier this week, there was a potential COVID-19 exposure at the Pasqua South Medical Centre where she works.

"I was floored," she said. "I looked at my kids who were with me in the room when I was called and I was like 'oh my God,' because I have a 10-month-old and a three-year-old. I thought 'have I been exposed? Has anyone else in the office been exposed? Have patients been exposed? What do I do?' "

Mitchell was in the clinic giving flu shots at the time of the exposure last week. While she was wearing her personal protective equipment, she is still concerned about her own safety as well as that of her loved ones, coworkers and community.

"In the back of your mind, you know nothing is 100 per cent," she said. "And when it's your family, your livelihood, everything you've been working so hard to protect that is potentially affected? You get very, very worried."

Clinic services are currently reduced and Mitchell worries about the ripple effects of rising COVID case numbers impacting medical clinics like hers throughout the province.

"My fear is that systems are going to be overwhelmed," she said.

She is calling for more action from public officials at all levels of government to control the spread of coronavirus in the province.

"I would like officials to stand up for the truth and for science," she said. "That includes a mask and hand-washing and social distancing — all of them, not just one or two."

Mitchell said mandates would make it easier for physicians and business owners to enforce public health precautions in their own establishments.