By Staff
September 10th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
From a media release put out earlier today:
Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH) is committed to providing high-quality care and a safe environment for our patients, their loved ones, our healthcare teams and our community.
The leadership being shown by the Burlington and area hospitals on the matter of vaccination is to be applauded.
The latest provincial modeling indicates that Ontario is in the midst of a fourth wave. There are concerns over the rapid transmission of the Delta variant, and its impact on hospitalization and the strain on critical care. We know that COVID-19 vaccination is a critical measure to minimizing the risk to our healthcare system and ending the pandemic.
In accordance with Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health’s Directive #6 which mandates COVID-19 vaccination policies in high-risk settings, JBH is implementing a phased COVID-19 Immunization and Management Policy that will apply to all staff and physicians, volunteers, learners, contracted staff and other third parties effective September 7.
Our goal, consistent with our hospital partners in the Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand, Norfolk, Brant, Burlington (HNHBB) region, is to have everyone who works at and with our hospitals to be fully vaccinated.
JBH is taking a progressive approach to achieving this goal, and is supporting our staff, physicians and other healthcare professionals who work in the hospital towards full vaccination. This includes completing formal and mandatory education on COVID-19 vaccines by September 17 and undergoing twice-weekly rapid antigen testing prior to reporting to work, starting September 16.
Should this initial phase result in less than 100 per cent of eligible staff being fully vaccinated in the weeks ahead, JBH will proceed to mandatory vaccination effective November 1, 2021.
We have already put in place additional policies that will require all eligible new hires, as well as students, volunteers, contracted staff and third parties who come to our hospital to be fully vaccinated by November 1.
There is significant evidence that vaccines are safe and effective, and the best defense to beat COVID-19. Full vaccination is critical to protecting our patients, their loved ones and our healthcare workers from COVID-19, while helping to maintain capacity in the healthcare system so we can continue to provide care to our community when it is most needed.
As healthcare workers, we all have a responsibility to minimize the risks to the safety of our patients and their essential care providers, using all of the tools at our disposal. This includes our longstanding safety policies, Personal Protective Equipment, Infection Prevention and Control practices – and now vaccination. It is the right thing to do, and a necessary step to ending this pandemic.
It is hard to imagine that all front line workers and anyone working/volunteering in the hospital have not been vaccinated to date.
To wait until November 1st to mandate 100% compliance seems an excessively long time. We are in the midst of a 4th wave of the Delta variant of Covid 19, with the Lambda and Mu variant detected in Ontario as well.
Why wait until November 1? COVID-19 isn’t waiting.