The executive director of the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance says the probability of Ebola showing up in Huron or Perth is small, but the risk is very large and the only thing worse than preparing for something like that is explaining to your community why you didn’t.

Andrew Williams told board members last night the Alliance is working with the province on preparations to make sure they’re meeting provincial guidelines. They are also working on the details of a plan at the local level in case an Ebola case presents in any of the four Alliance hospitals.

Williams adds they’ve reinforced their personal protective equipment training, they have signage at hospital registration areas, and are working with providers to make sure they’re communicating with everyone that should be involved.

Williams points out they deal with infectious viruses on a regular basis and always have to be prepared.

Williams also says that while there was a time when it might have been acceptable and realistic to says the Ebola virus was something that was happening in a distant land and not a concern to Canadians, the fact is we live in a much smaller world today and nothing is far away.