COVID broke out in the city
It took its time coming to our river town
and our hospital
Volunteers stopped volunteering
People were scared to come to emergency
Relatives, carers and loved ones weren’t allowed to visit
The hospital was quiet
All of us waiting for an influx of COVID patients
At our pre-operative clinic emails ramped up
as the postal service slowed down
phone calls replaced face-to-face consults
Tell me your medical and surgical history
Your current meds
Your social history
Your family or friends who’ll support you on discharge
Your contact with COVID, your possible symptoms
I’ll tell you
The tests you need
The things you can expect, before and after
The PCR requirements—three days
before surgery and isolation until admission
Non-urgent surgery was cancelled
We put in calls to those on our list
I know you had to wait more than ninety days
Now it is even longer
Sorry
New healthcare announcements and rules rolled in usually on a Friday or after four on weekdays when the prep work for the next day’s surgical list was complete
Calls were made late to patients
Your surgery tomorrow has been cancelled
I’m sorry we can’t tell you
when it will be rescheduled, we’ll ring you
Sorry if you’ve organised time off work
Sorry your carer has changed their work
to assist you on discharge
So sorry arrangements for the care
of your loved ones will have to be changed
Yes, I know you have children with
special needs
I know you need to travel two hours
for the tests again
Patients started cancelling too
for fear, for the border, for confusion
Conversations again over the phone
Please don’t cancel your surgery
It’s medical, it’s important
Please go online to get your border permit
before you travel
Please allow more time to cross
Please still come across
Yes, I know it’s hard but it’s doable
I knew what people were feeling
I understood the loss of control
The need for faith in others
The acute fear and anxiety of the elderly
The isolation
Like so many others, I lived across the border
And the different rules swirled around us
like the water we crossed
COVID came to us six months after it gripped
the city (bar two unique cases—one a cruise
tourist, one from a city hospital)
Less quiet in the hospital
More patients
More staff sick and away
For the very ill, more transfers to the larger hospitals
And still the fear, restrictions, remote care
Still…
Sorry. Please. I know.