Unvaccinated patients closing door on hospital visits

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This article was published 26/08/2021 (1672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIX critically ill cardiac patients in St. Boniface Hospital were denied visitors for two days because an unvaccinated patient was put in their room.

Families of the patients, who were all in the hospital’s specialized cardiac ward, were warned on Sunday that an incoming patient had not been vaccinated so no visitors would be allowed on Monday.

Karen Merritt said visits were also not allowed on Tuesday, but on Wednesday she could see her mother again because the unvaccinated patient had been discharged.

“I was completely shocked,” said Merritt. “It is horrible. A person needs family in order to heal. I’m double-vaxxed. What is the incentive of me getting vaccinated and for her to have been vaccinated?

“Why is that person not segregated? I just couldn’t believe it.”

A Shared Health spokesman said this week guidelines for visits have been reviewed by infection prevention and control experts to find a balance between the virus risks and the need for loved ones to see each other.

Shared Health says while fully immunized Manitobans can visit fully immunized patients in their rooms, as long as they maintain physical distancing, this changes when an unvaccinated patient is put in the room. If that happens, another location for the visitor and fully vaccinated patient may be found, if possible.

But earlier this week, another family told the Free Press they had been prevented from visiting their loved one in hospital, and they weren’t told about the possibility of finding another place to visit. The hospital later told the family it was a mistake not to tell them about the possibility of an alternative space.

Sabrina Foxworthy said even though both she and her mother are fully vaccinated — along with her critically ill sister — they couldn’t visit her in Health Sciences Centre’s Rehabilitation Hospital last week because an unvaccinated patient had been moved into her room.

“Their right not to be vaxxed shouldn’t trump my sister’s right to have a visitor,” said Foxworthy on Monday. “Who are they trying to protect?

“We’ve been told she could be in hospital for months. It adds to our stress to know this could happen again at any time. It’s the constant unknown.”

Merritt said her mother, Gail Merritt, went to Seven Oaks General Hospital last Thursday after she had a heart attack. She wasn’t transferred to St. Boniface until the next day because no beds were available.

She said she was able to visit her mom throughout the weekend, but on Sunday night she was warned she wouldn’t be able to visit on Monday because an unvaccinated patient was coming in.

“Even my dad couldn’t visit her,” said Merritt.

“That’s not fair. They should be the one in isolation instead of just putting them with vaccinated patients.”

Merritt said she is glad the provincial government has finally said health-care workers — and others who deal with vulnerable people — must get vaccinated.

“Mandatory vaccination of health-care workers should have been done as soon as vaccines were available,” she said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca