As the Ontario government lifts more COVID-19 restrictions, staff at Erie Shores Healthcare are dealing with a new problem, people who have forgotten the hospital is a high-risk setting.
CEO Kristin Kennedy said more people have come into the hospital lately without their masks. Worse, those people become hostile with staff when reminded masking is still mandatory.
Kennedy said the hospital is not like a restaurant or the mall. It is a high-risk setting with vulnerable patients.
"I ask that our community do their best to accommodate what we're asking," she said.
She's asking people to continue to wear their masks if they come to Erie Shores Healthcare. She said they still have to wear a gown, screen for COVID-19, may be asked to show their vaccine passport, and possibly be tested.
"Our front-line staff do not need those individuals coming in here and acting in a hostile manner," she emphasized. "These are things that we explore on a weekly basis to see if there's any opportunity for us to change those to align with what's happening in the community, but at this current moment, we are not in a position to do that."
At Windsor Regional Hospital, Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Steve Erwin said for the most part visitors to their facility have followed the rules, although there was one incident over the weekend. Erwin said a man came to the hospital with a fake vaccine passport, got angry with staff when it was recognized as false, and was removed by security. On his way out of the hospital, he allegedly gave the security guards a nazi salute.
"We're not a restaurant, we're not a gym, we're not the mall. We're a hospital," said Erwin.
In the meantime, Kennedy said the diagnostic imaging department is running at full capacity again. Surgeries will ramp up to 90 per cent capacity in the next week or two.
This week marks the second anniversary since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
