After city firefighters were exposed to a coronavirus patient they took to Sturdy Memorial Hospital last week, bureaucratic red tape prevented them from getting tested quickly by the hospital.
In response to the incident, the hospital will change its procedure so first-responders exposed to the virus can get tested faster, Dr. Brian Patel, chief of Sturdy’s emergency services, said Wednesday.
The problem arose last Saturday when Sturdy notified the fire department that a patient firefighters took to the hospital six days earlier tested positive for the virus, Fire Chief Scott Lachance said. Lachance said an elderly woman broke her leg in a fall and did not have symptoms of the virus, so the five firefighters did not wear their extra-protective suits.
When the firefighters sought testing at Sturdy after being notified, Lachance said the hospital told him they had to seek their own physicians or one affiliated with Sturdy.