With unvaccinated healthcare workers being refused entry at their worksites under new COVID-19 measures, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has stated that the fallout could see the public health system being forced to reduce some of its services.
During the daily COVID-19 update on Friday, Anthony stated that the current health system is working with the capacity that it currently has since many persons have either not been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have not presented a negative PCR test result in order to be able to access their workplaces.
“If people are not coming to work then in some cases it might cause us to reduce some of the health services that we are currently offering at the two major institutions where we are affected, that’s in Linden and in Georgetown,” Anthony said.
Following a two-week moratorium, public hospitals have once again enforced a requirement that staff present either proof of vaccination against COVID or a negative PCR test result in order to be allowed entry to the facilities.
Anthony said unvaccinated healthcare workers are putting themselves at risk on a daily basis. He noted that they interact with a number of persons daily and apart from the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) they should protect themselves by getting inoculated.
“This is not an emotive issue. This is one where your life can be at risk and the only way that you can protect yourself is to get vaccinated. I do hope that good sense prevails and that they would go and get vaccinated…,” he said.
As it relates to the possibility of the reduction of services being offered, he mentioned that the administrations of both institutions that have been affected in a major way have taken certain measures to ensure that the services are available. He, however, added that the ministry would be closely examining the situation every day and on every shift and then make decisions.
“The stand that some people have of not protecting themselves runs counter to all the medical education that one would have received during their years of study and runs counter to the science, so I really would urge our healthcare workers who have not been vaccinated as yet to really closely examine the issue,” he added.
Anthony stated that he has seen a number of these workers saying that they do not have enough information on the vaccines. However, he indicated that at the two institutions in Georgetown and Linden, prior to the gazetted orders being implemented, there were several educational sessions held to ensure that workers’ questions on the vaccines were answered.
“There is absolutely no excuse that someone right now does not understand the types of vaccines that we have, how it works. If they have any queries about side effects and so forth, all of those questions were asked and answered and people are aware of those answers… both at the Linden hospital and Georgetown hospital,” he added.
