Unvaccinated hospital employees face deadline today

Unvaccinated Sault Area Hospital (SAH) employees are facing a crucial deadline.

“Sault Area Hospital is currently working with approximately 70 of 1,766 active employees who have until the end of the day today (Nov. 22, 2021) to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine,” stated Brandy Sharp Young, SAH spokesperson in an email.

Sharp Young indicated SAH will not be in a position to comment on the specifics of the situation until later this week.

“At this time, we do intend to provide an update to the community later in the week,” Sharp Young wrote.  

SAH employees who provide documentation of having received their first dose of the vaccine on or before Nov. 22 will then have until Monday, Dec. 20, 2021 to provide documentation of having received their second dose.

That figure of 70 unvaccinated SAH employees remains unchanged since Nov. 10.

As reported earlier, SAH has been working with employees who are not fully vaccinated “to understand their concerns and provide education on the importance of being vaccinated in preventing the spread of COVID-19.”

“Those who do not yet have their first dose on November 23, 2021, will be terminated with cause,” SAH stated earlier this month.

As far as the current COVID-19 situation is concerned, Sharp Young wrote Monday “we currently have 17 COVID-19 admissions; three of the admitted patients are in the ICU. All COVID-19 patients admitted to SAH are from the Algoma area.”

SAH states urgent surgeries and procedures will continue, though “some elective procedures and surgeries have been rescheduled.”

SAH teams are meeting daily to review activity within the hospital and COVID numbers in the Sault and area.

Each hospital department is asked where activity can be possibly reduced while still delivering patient care. 

Hospital teams are asked to consider rescheduling in-person appointments to a later date and also review daily elective surgeries and procedures.