Some 92 per cent of all Alberta health-care workers are vaccinated, said Alberta Health Services, and the organization has extended the deadline for vaccinations by one month.
On Friday, AHS announced it would be extending the vaccination deadline for health-care workers in the province from Oct. 31 to Nov. 30
Peggy Makofka, executive director of Family and Community Support Services in Rimbey, which runs the town's home-care services, said when the vaccine mandate was first announced they were looking at losing 30 per cent of their staff.
Some 12 to 15 of the 45 staff they have working for them were unvaccinated when the mandate was first introduced, but as time has gone on there has been an uptick in vaccination rates.
“But over time with some thinking about it and when information came out there has been more and more that have stepped up,” Makofka said.
Some staff have one dose but weren’t going to be double vaccinated by the previous deadline of Oct. 31, but the extension will allow more to get both doses in time.
Eight staff members are now in the process of getting vaccinated.
Once Makofka started evaluating the vaccine situation they hired five new staff members to account for those who may be leaving because of the mandate.
When the extension was announced to the mandate on Friday, Makofka had mixed feelings about it.
Makofka said her new staff members set to start soon, along with training, but she was worried about having enough staff to cover the first week to 10 days of November. Now with the extension she will have enough health-care aids for that time.
“I think my jaw probably dropped open because we had been working hard and long and fast to be ready for next week hiring and orientating and going through the emotions of losing some of our staff and holding their hands as they have to make difficult decisions,” Makofka said.
“Then they hear that it was extended a month. I think my first reaction was, well, I guess that might make it a little easier for us … [but] I was frustrated, too.”
Now for the last 20 days of November Makofka will have more staff than she planned for. She said the change means she must talk to each outgoing staff member to figure out whether they want to stay the entire month or leave earlier for another job.
At the end of August, AHS announced that, by Oct. 31 all employees, volunteers, and contracted health-care providers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
AHS president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said that due to the mounting pressure of the fourth wave, they wanted to give staff every opportunity to get vaccinated and submit proof.
“We are extending the deadline to give all employees more time to submit their proof of vaccination and, if they haven’t yet, to get fully vaccinated. We’re providing more time so our workforce is as safe and robust as it can be.”
Last week AHS said 94 per cent of full-time and part-time employees had already submitted proof of being double-dosed.
More than 97 per cent of ICU staff are fully immunized.
Yiu said health-care workers generally have higher rates of immunization than the rest of the public — between 10- and 15-per-cent higher. The rate of immunization mirrors the communities in which they work.
In Rimbey 57.1 per cent of the population is immunized with one dose, while 50.8 per cent have been double-dosed.
Across Alberta 73.7 per cent of the total population has had one dose and 67.1 per cent is fully vaccinated.
“There’s no question that we have challenges in areas within central zone, within south zone and also within the north zone, and so working with those areas to ensure that we can continue our process around answering any questions, educating them about the safety of vaccinations, and the importance of keeping not just ourselves safe but also our loved ones safe,” Yiu said.
The policy also applies to casual employees, such as the ones working for home care in Rimbey, and as of Friday some 76 per cent had submitted proof of vaccination.
So far there have been 1,400 requests to AHS for medical and religious exemptions to the mandatory vaccine policy.
Yiu said the bar for exemptions is pretty high and is anticipating very few of them will be granted, although each one will be reviewed thoroughly.
So far 61 employees have resigned because of the vaccine policy, including 31 in clinical roles. Eleven were registered nurses.
Yiu said they don’t want anybody to resign or quit over the mandate.
“At the end of the day, it’s about protecting patients, continuing-care residents, and anyone in our care, as well as looking out for our staff. We have a responsibility to do that.”
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