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By Regan Tate

Open letter sent to government

Medicine Hat doctors want mandatory vaccines for those who deal directly with patients

Aug 24, 2021 | 10:12 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – An outbreak of COVID-19 at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has a group of local doctors demanding mandatory vaccines.

In an open letter to the premier, health minister and chief medical officer of health, the physicians say they want to ensure all health-care workers who directly deal with patients are vaccinated.

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Most of the current infections and hospital admissions due to COVID-19 are in the unvaccinated population.

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However, some fully vaccinated patients and health-care workers are now getting breakthrough infections after coming in close contact with unvaccinated workers.

Currently, 17 health-care workers and five patients have contracted COVID-19 from the outbreak at the hospital.

A post on the CHAT TV Facebook page confirms a woman passed away on Aug. 23 as a result of the outbreak.

The doctors note that some jurisdictions across Canada have already made vaccines mandatory and are looking for decisive leadership to mandate vaccines for all frontline health workers to reduce outbreaks.

The source of the outbreak is still being investigated.

The letter

On behalf of our communities and many of our physician colleagues, we would request the Honourable Premier, the health minister and our chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw to urgently mandate COVID vaccinations for the physicians and other health care workers who come in direct contact with patients in all health-care settings across our province.

In spite of the availability of effective vaccines, the pandemic is persisting with a rapid surge of infections in our communities, and with increased number of admissions to our hospitals with significant human, social, and economic costs to the province, and straining our already stretched health care system. Even though most of the current infections and hospital admissions due to COVID-19 are in the unvaccinated population, some fully vaccinated patients and health-care workers are now getting breakthrough infections by coming in close contact with unvaccinated health care workers.

As you would already be aware, there has been a recent outbreak at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital where five patients who were admitted for other reasons have now acquired COVID infections. In addition, 15 members of the hospital staff have also been infected during this outbreak and had to go off work. This affects the morale of many physicians and staff who have worked immensely hard for their patients during this pandemic, have done their part in getting vaccinated, and are now looking for some decisive leadership from our leaders to mandate vaccination for all frontline health-care workers and reduce such outbreaks.

Living in one of the most privileged and free societies, we understand the importance of individual choice and liberty including the personal choice of the health-care workers and physicians who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID 19. For the greater good of the society, any such individual choice and liberty must however be weighed against the fundamental rights of our patients, and the vast majority of vaccinated health-care workers who deserve the safest possible environment within our hospitals and health care facilities.

We realize that some colleagues amongst us cannot be vaccinated for valid health reasons, but barring such rare exceptions, a mandate must be immediately made for the unvaccinated health-care workers to do their part and become fully vaccinated within a reasonable time frame. Unless we can ensure a vaccine mandate for our frontline health-care workers at this time, the advice to the public and the wider community to get their COVID vaccines and contain this pandemic would ring hollow.

Some jurisdictions and large organizations across Canada have already effected such measures, and in the greater interest of our patients and communities we would request an urgent consideration by our leaders to make the COVID vaccination mandatory for all eligible frontline health-care workers across Alberta.

Thanking you,

Dr. D. Jena, Dr. M. Bering, Dr. J. Pasternak, Dr P. Parks, Dr. G. Prince, Dr. T. Mohanraj, Dr. A. Jeraj, Dr. A. Carlsson, Dr. N. Wanner, Dr. J. Hawkwood. (Physicians and medical leaders from Medicine Hat Regional Hospital)