An interview with Dr. Sabra Gibbens

Apr 01, 2020

The Verona Medical Clinic remains closed this week, after a staff member tested positive with COVID-19 on March 24.

Shortly after the result was announced, the staff member who tested positive, Amanda Antoine, identified herself via a Facebook post. All of the centre staff are in self-isolation at this time, and a public health investigator has determined who is at risk within the clinic, Ms. Antoine’s family and friends, and the local community. There have been other positive tests, but the circle of exposure seems to have been closed.

Dr. Gibbens, six days into self-isolation, responded to an interview request on Tuesday of this week. She continues to work and communicate with patients and colleagues over telephone and electronic means. She also developed symptoms early last week, and undertook a COVID test for that reason, and the test came back negative. Those symptoms, which she describes as “mild cold symptoms” have abated. She is feeling well, and keeping busy at home. She is allowed to go to the clinic. She is the only one there, so she remains in isolation.

The Verona clinic changed its operating practices because of COVID-19, on Monday March 16. From that point forward, patients were being heavily screened and only those who absolutely needed to be seen, were allowed to enter. Amanda Antoine became sick on Thursday the 19th, and did not come in on Friday. She became more ill on the weekend and was tested on Monday, the 23rd. Because the clinic instituted its screening protocol three days before Antoine developed symptoms, exposure to patients was limited.

“It took a lot of work for Public Health to put together a list of people who may have been exposed. Everyone on that list has been contacted and told to self-isolate. Any of those people who have subsequently displayed symptoms, has been tested. Any staff member who tests positive will eventually need to test negative twice, within a 24-hour interval, before coming back to work,” Dr. Gibbens said.

“We hope to be able to re-open just before or just after Easter, but Public Health will have to give us the all clear first.”

One of the reasons that primary care clinics are diverting patients to phone and video conferencing where possible, and are referring patients who need blood tests or injections to other locations, is to protect the local community, saidn Dr. Gibbens. Another is to conserve supplies of PPE’s (Personal Protective Equipment), which are dwindling.

“It is inconvenient for a patient who requires a blood test to have to go to Lifelabs in Kingston, instead of getting the test here in Verona, but it protects everyone from exposure and saves us using up valuable PPE’s.

“We are working with local volunteers, as are the other clinics we are associated with (Tamworth, Newburgh, and Sydenham), to sew cloth gowns for us. Those gowns will be able to be washed and re-used, and that will ease some of the supply burden, but we also need to use the masks and face guards that are in short supply.”

As she enters the second week of isolation and works to maintain as much contact as possible with her patients, she said she has been able to keep focused on what she can get done, for the most part.

“I’ve lots of feelings, of course concern for my people, concern for my patients, it is nerve wracking. I still worry about the patients we were supposed to see last Wednesday and Thursday. I am still trying to contact some of them, and I am working to make sure prescriptions are renewed, which has taken a lot of time,” she said.

The self-isolation has been a bit of a strange experience for her, and for her family (she is isolated from them as well.)

“I generally work long hours, coming home in the evening quite often. When I am home, I am fully home, work is left behind. Now I am home much more, but I am isolated from everyone in the house, and I am working at home much of the time. So even though I am there more, I am less connected with family life than I normally am because of this,” she said.