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Melfort asks public to pause donations

MELFORT— The City of Melfort is asking the public to pause their response to the community call for protective equipment for local physicians after only a day.
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MELFORT— The City of Melfort is asking the public to pause their response to the community call for protective equipment for local physicians after only a day.

“Our understanding is it’s relating to the amount of product they were required,” said Brent Lutz, Melfort’s director of development, planning and community relations.

“The local physicians and the local hospital staff feel they have enough product for the time being. I do know they had a big response from some of our industrial suppliers in the community because a lot of the same protective equipment is used in their industry.”

The original call, made on March 23, was from the Family Physicians Group and the Melfort Hospital staff to the City of Melfort for assistance in acquiring basic supplies.

The supplies included masks (not necessarily N95 only, any masks would be useful), full face shields, bunny suits (disposable painting type suites), and goggles.

The city passed that message along to all businesses that may have some in their inventories, and arranged to pick up the products and deliver it to the hospital.

On March 24, the city asked the public to not drop off any further items, and instead keep these available should they be needed in the coming days.

“Twenty-four hours later they’re saying, ‘Stop, we got more than we can manage at the moment,’” Lutz said.

“We’re really appreciative, I think people have been just looking for ways that they can help and feeling helpless in the situation, and even though we’re saying the best thing to do is to stay home, many of them are asking, ‘Is there something more I can do?’”