Staff at the Dryden Regional Health Centre still have some choice when it comes to being vaccinated against COVID-19.
Health care workers at the hospital must have both doses or undergo antigen testing every 72 hours.
President and CEO Doreen Armstrong-Ross says full vaccination rates among staff currently sits at 91%.
Armstrong-Ross stresses they want to protect their patients, visitors and staff and vaccination is the next step to do just that.
She notes vaccinations decrease the risk and amount of COVID in an area and notes during the pandemic they had great infection control procedures in place and that’s why they never saw a single outbreak at the hospital.
Armstrong-Ross the DRHC continues to follow the directives from Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health which instructs hospitals must have a vaccination policy in place.
Meantime, the provincial government remains reluctant to bring in a mandatory vaccine mandate for health care facilities and schools.
Premier Doug Ford says if they go that route as suggested by the opposition, there might not be enough nurses or teachers in Ontario.
“The reality is, right now we’re already down 15% health care workers, and what they don’t take into consideration, because they live in their little bubble here, they don’t think about the hospitals in Timmins, or hospitals in Thunder Bay, or hospitals in Sudbury, in the rural areas.”
Ford notes, “It’s easy to sit back and say let’s just cut 20,000 health care workers or let’s cut off 40,000 people in the education system,” states Ford.
He adds, “And then you ask the people of Ontario when little Johnny is sitting at home online because we don’t have enough teachers, we don’t have enough custodians at schools.”
Health Minister Christine Elliott says they are currently consulting with hospitals to find out what the best way forward is but also to address the surgery backlog in the province.
“It’s not good if someone comes in and infects someone because they’re not vaccinated but on the other hand if a whole group of people leaves then there is nobody to take care of people in the hospital.”
Elliott stresses that anyone who is not vaccinated still must to be tested regularly to ensure they aren’t carrying COVID-19.
(With Files From Tim Davidson: Kenora)
