The Saskatchewan Health Authority is reminding residents that it is still safe to go to hospitals for other medical needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SHA spokesperson Dr. Terry Ross said just because COVID-19 is here doesn’t mean other medical conditions don’t exist.

“People are still going to have asthma attacks, they’re still going to have heart attacks, they’re still going to have abdominal pain, they’re still going to have other infectious diseases,” Ross said. “The emergency departments are absolutely set up and ready to help with all of those things, as are the primary care physicians in the community.”

Ross said when you first enter a hospital for treatment, you will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms.

“When you come into the emergency department, you’re going to be met by someone who’s going to have you do some hand hygiene,” Ross said. “If you’re at all screening positive for any potential COVID-like symptoms, a mask will be placed on you.

We then try to separate our emergency departments based on COVID screen positives, which is a potential COVID-type presentation, and those that are not within that.”

Ross said one thing he has noticed is an increased use of personal protective equipment use, which is good and bad.

“Protective equipment is wonderful if used properly and incredibly dangerous if it’s not,” Ross said. “If people don’t actually know how to put a ask off or on, if they don’t actually know how to do good hand hygiene, and sometimes even to take for example, people wearing some head covers, if you don’t know how to take that head cover off without contaminating yourself, you’re actually introducing harm.”

While there have been outbreaks declared in several hospitals, including one earlier this week in Meadow Lake, Ross says some outbreaks were unavoidable regardless of the plans made by the SHA, and for the most part they have been managed and controlled.