The London Health Sciences Centre has a strong message for staff members: It's time to get vaccinated.
In a statement sent to the media on Tuesday, LHSC Interim CEO Dr. Jackie Schleifer Taylor explained the decision.
"Our promise to every person who comes through our doors is to offer safe and compassionate care. With rising COVID-19 cases across the province and many of our patients among the most vulnerable, this covenant with you becomes even more fundamental," she wrote. "This is why today we are announcing that we are standing with our fellow health care organizations across the Southwest and Ontario to do the right thing for our patients. We are instituting a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for all of our people, including (but not limited to): physicians, staff, volunteers, learners, contractors and cross-appointed personnel."
The London Health Sciences Centre has dealt with several COVID outbreaks since the start of the pandemic - including one in June.
"This policy aligns with that of our peer hospital organizations and mandates that everyone must complete both doses and the 14-day waiting period no later than October 22, 2021. This builds on our other protective measures like mandatory education and testing. This autumn patients coming to LHSC can take comfort in the certain knowledge that their care team has been fully vaccinated. It is the right thing to do to protect us all," Schleifer Taylor wrote in the hospital's statement.
The deadline means staff who are yet to be vaccinated at all must receive their first shot by September 8, and their second one before October 8.
Of the 640 people who have contracted the virus locally since July 20, approximately 65.3 per cent were not vaccinated, according to the Middlesex-London Health Unit.
There were 22 new confirmed cases on the virus on Tuesday.
