Staff and students at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay have collected hundreds of boxes of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care providers in the region to help them cope with the shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We were able to collect over 820 N95 masks that are in extremely short supply right now and essential to the safety of frontline healthcare workers and clinicians," said Anne Klymenko, the director of the office of research services at Lakehead, in a written release Thursday.

"We also received more than 1,750 surgical, procedural masks and disposable face shields, 325 disposable gowns, and sanitizer. All this was collected on short notice on March 27 and March 30."

She explained the collection began when researchers started asking her where they could drop-off essential PPE for the hospital.

She issued a call to all NOSM and university researchers on both Thunder Bay and Orillia campuses, asking people to donate PPE.

The response from the university community was "overwhelming and heartwarming", said Klymenko, with donations pouring in not only from the medical school, but also the science, natural resources management, environmental studies and health and behavioural sciences faculties.

Some of the personal protective equipment for healthcare workers collected by staff and students at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Orillia. (Lakehead University )

As the donations grew, Klymenko and her group of volunteers were put in touch with the procurement departments at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC), St. Joseph's Care Group (SJCG) and the Northern Supply Chain. The three entities work together to make sure essential PPE is distributed to acute-care hospitals, long-term care homes, and healthcare providers experiencing urgent shortages of PPE.

In Orillia, Rebecca Heffernan, research and strategic Initiatives facilitator, collected around 4,000 pairs of gloves from Sustainability Sciences and donated them to the Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital.

Lakehead University challenges businesses to donate

Now, Andrew Dean, the vice-president of research and innovation at Lakehead University, is challenging other businesses and organizations in Thunder Bay, Orillia and across northern Ontario to see how they can help.

"Please look through your surplus PPE inventories to continue the momentum. Donations big and small are critical to have available in our communities in the next few weeks," Dr. Dean said.

Donations can be made to the northern Ontario "PPE for healthcare providers (HCP) campaign (#PPEforHCPs).

Students at NOSM, who are spearheading the campaign are approaching local businesses and organizations to see if they have anything to contribute. They have already collected donations from Magnus Theatre, Superior Nails, an anonymous dental clinic, TBT Engineering, and Hamm Home Rehab

"The #PPEforHCPs is rising to the challenge of sourcing personal protective equipment from over 28 communities and counting," stated Alannah MacLean, a second-year NOSM medical student in Thunder Bay.

NOSM students gathering PPE for small communities too

Unlike similar campaigns in southern Ontario, the northern students are working to provide PPE to health care facilities in small and remote communities, rather than just a big city.

The NOSM campus encompasses all of northern Ontario, an area of over 800,000 km².

"As part of our fundraising campaign to support manufacturing and operating costs for PPE production, we received a $1,000 donation from Domtar Corporation in Dryden. Domtar also donated an additional $4,000 directly to the hospitals in Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout, Dryden, and Red Lake," MacLean said.

"Supplies are vital to our Hospital's response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Dr. Stewart Kennedy, the COVID-19 incident manager at the TBRHSC, stated in the release.

"We are very grateful to our partners at Lakehead University and NOSM for coming together and collecting donations. Their efforts will save lives and allow our health care professionals to focus on providing safe, quality care."

For more information on how to donate, contact the NOSM students at northernontarioppeforhcp@gmail.com.