SEARHC should designate a local health expert to update the media and the public on how it’s adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents and local organizations want and need to hear from Haines health experts, not a public relations specialist from another town. This is not a critique of their marketing person, but a reasonable desire to hear from our neighbors who can tell us what’s going on in our clinic.

During Tuesday evening’s borough town hall meeting, Doctor Lylith Widmer, medical director of the SEARHC Haines Health Center, updated the community on the clinic’s current operations and preparedness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said clinic staff have been doing case simulations and made two Intensive Care Unit beds that can accommodate COVID-19 patients until they are transferred. She said they have an abundant supply of personal protective equipment and testing kits.

“I want to assure everyone that anyone who needs a COVID-19 test will get a test,” Widmer said.

Hearing from a local doctor with whom I’ve communicated with in community events was reassuring. But it was the first time residents have heard from a local health professional publicly. Nearly all communications with media go through SEARHC’s director of marketing. While that person has been responsive, and does her best to provide Haines-specific information from her Sitka residence, it’s not the same as hearing from our doctors who will treat us and take care of us when and if the need arises.

In Petersburg, their hospital staff update the community on a daily call-in show on KFSK. In Skagway they release the number of tests the clinic has completed. Those events quell rumors and increase transparency during uncertain and anxiety-laden times.

Last week I asked SEARHC headquarters if they would allow a local doctor to speak on the clinic’s behalf to answer questions such as: How have the operations at the local clinic changed? Are doctors doing home visits? Is telehealth occurring? Is the clinic well supplied?

I received no response.