Grey Bruce Health Services says it will be placing employees and medical professionals who choose not to receive their Covid shots by Nov. 25 on leave without pay.
GBHS Communications Coordinator Madeline Lougheed says the organization supports mandatory Covid vaccinations as part of its commitment to provide a safe and healthy environment for their facilities.
GBHS has hospitals across the region, including Lion’s Head, Meaford, Markdale, Southampton, Wiarton, and Owen Sound.
Unless a medical exemption is provided, GBHS will require all of their staff and physicians to be fully vaccinated.
When asked about what per cent of their employees are vaccinated, Lougheed says their current rate is at 96 per cent, and they are optimistic this will increase moving closer to Nov. 25.
“We expect that the number of individuals who choose not to be vaccinated will be quite low,” says Lougheed.
Lougheed says they are pleased with the high number of residents in Grey Bruce who are vaccinated, including the vast majority of their staff and physicians.
“Thanks to these efforts, we are optimistic that going forward, our area will continue to see low numbers of Covid-19,” says Lougheed.
The Ontario government issued a directive in August to health organizations to establish a Covid vaccination policy, requiring those who don’t who their shots to undergo regular testing and an education session.
Meanwhile, GBHS also recently announced it will be introducing a policy to require visitors to its hospitals to be fully vaccinated starting in late November.
A statement on the hospital organization’s website says the exact date of implementation will be announced shortly.
“This policy will not apply to patients. All patients coming to hospital will get the care they need, regardless of vaccination status,” the GBHS statement explains.
There will be several exceptions to the GBHS policy requiring hospital visitors to be vaccinated.
According to a release from GBHS, the new policy, when implemented, will not apply in the following situations:
- visitors of palliative/end of life patients who are not expected to leave hospital
- parents/guardians of children who are inpatients or outpatients
- support person/partner of a woman giving birth
- support person for patients with a disability
- visitors with a valid medical exemption to vaccination
