This month at the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health meeting, we dig into a variety of concerns including privacy, communicable diseases, and drinking. Yes, the major presentation for this meeting is about how much and how often people in our region say they need a drink or many drinks, and whether or not they’re fully aware of the health impacts of that. So let’s dig into the agenda for some of the details.
NOTE #1: This meeting will held virtually online. To get the link you will have to send a request to join the meeting via an online form that you can find here. Deadline to send in the request is Wednesday February 5 at 11 am.
NOTE #2: The meeting begins at 2 pm.
MOH Update(s) – Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer will deliver her verbal report on current matters facing Public Health.
PRESENTATIONS:
2024 Community Alcohol Survey – See the report below.
WDGPH Annual Privacy Program Update – There were six privacy breaches at Public Health last year, which is an increase when compared to 2023 but it’s actually pretty comparable to the times before COVID-19. The breaches themselves, reportedly, were in the form of misdirected mail or people accidentally opening mail that wasn’t intended for them.
COVID-19, Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccinations – In 2024, the leading cause of hospitalisations was respiratory illnesses, so you’d think that there was probably a lot of pick-up for jabs during this cold and flu season. Not really. There were 32 per cent fewer doses of the COVID-19 vaccine handed out last year, and 68 per cent fewer doses handed out in Public Health operated clinics. If there’s a silver lining, the fall off wasn’t as bad in our region when compared the provincial averages: 36 per cent fewer doses were handed out overall, and 85 per cent fewer in public health-led clinics. As for flu shots, there were 14,000 fewer shots handed out in 2024/25 versus the last flu season.
2024 Community Alcohol Survey – You may recall that Public Health was promoting a survey about local alcohol consumption last year. These are the results. Some of the insights gathered: 55 per cent of respondents said that they live within one kilometre of somewhere they can buy alcohol, 29 per cent said that they drink at a moderate to high level, and 39 per cent said that they had taken part in binge drinking in the last year. Public Health also identified some knowledge gaps when it comes to the health like the impacts of drinking alcohol, so some of these insights will be used to design new programs and promotions, including ones that will be directed to young adults between 16 and 29 who have been identified as a “priority population” on this issue.
Trends in Tuberculosis – WDG Public Health increased their monitoring of TB during the pandemic, and while the good news is that the rate of local TB infections went down in 2024 when compared to 2023, they’re still higher than they were compared to years pre-pandemic. Interestingly, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph is one of the few health units in Ontario with its own TB clinic.
Maturing the Quality and Impact Performance Framework – WDG Public Health staff implemented this framework as a way of tracking, assessing, and improving the performance of their various programs. As of February, all 43 programs included in the framework have been completed, and the measurement plan is being finalised with a completion date set of this coming May. The end goal is to increase transparency, strive of continuous improvement and to streamline reporting.
CLOSED SESSION:
There will be a discussion about the verbal report from the Audit Committee, specifically the Risk Registry Report Reserves and Reserve Funds Status. Since this involves “personal matters about an identifiable individual including BOH employees, and the security of the property of BOH”, the board has to go in-camera.
Guelph Politico 