key issues to present to the board of the hospital in this scenario

"It is April 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The health system is overwhelmed by lack of available staff and high amount of patients - both COVID-19 and routine health needs (surgeries, other illness, palliative care, etc.).

You are a senior administrator for University Hospital in London, ON. To meet increasing demands in the emergency room and COVID-19 clinics, the Board made the decision to re-assign all staff according to need, not speciality. For example, a geriatric specialist might be assigned to the COVID-19 clinic serving the general population, or a surgeon may be on-call for general patients. This decision was communicated internally only and was not shared with the public.

This information about the re-assignment of staff was leaked to the media by a member of the public, who was upset that a paediatrician was unavailable to see their young son. Instead, their son was seen by a specialist who has not served children in some time. Now, the Board is trying to manage media requests to comment on the safety of the decision to re-assign staff; calls from the mayor's office demanding an explanation, and frontline staff who are increasingly frustrated with having to communicate these realities to incoming patients.

As a senior hospital administrator, your role is to advise the Board on the internal and external communication needed to manage this high-stress situation. You must:

• Advise the Board on how they should respond to media requests about the safety of their decision.
• Draft a statement for the Mayor's office, who is concerned about the needs of their constituents
• Prepare a public relations package for frontline staff, communicating the situation and preparing them for possible conversations with patients and caregivers"