by: stephanie babych
a group of medicine hat physicians is calling on the province to implement a covid-19 vaccination mandate for frontline health-care workers as the local hospital grapples with a fatal outbreak and infection rates climb provincewide.
there are 17 health-care workers at the medicine hat regional hospital who have tested positive for covid-19 in an outbreak that has also spread to five patients, as of monday. to date, one death of a patient has been linked to this outbreak.
the site-wide outbreak was declared last wednesday, and this week a group of 10 doctors raised concerns in an open letter to the premier.
“as physicians, we always go by the principle of ‘do no harm,’” dr. debkant jena, an orthopedic surgeon and signatory of the letter, said monday.
“anybody who comes into contact with patients and can be a potential source of transmission should have mandated vaccinations unless there’s a valid reason for them not to.”
the letter requests premier jason kenney, health minister tyler shandro and chief medical officer of health dr. deena hinshaw “urgently” mandate covid-19 vaccinations for frontline health-care workers provincewide.
“in spite of the availability of effective vaccines, the pandemic is persisting with a rapid surge of infections in our communities, and with an increased number of admissions to our hospitals with significant human, social and economic costs to the province,” the open letter reads.