Deadline approaching for health care workers to get flu shot
Posted November 26, 2014 6:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Health care workers in BC have until Monday to roll up their sleeve to get a mandatory flu shot.
With just days to go before the deadline, there are still many who haven’t received one.
Dr. Meena Dawar with Vancouver Coastal Health says just less than 60 per cent reported being immunized and she explains those who choose not to get one by Monday will have to wear a mask when dealing with the patients.
“That’s when our Health Care Worker Influenza Control Policy comes into effect, essentially indicating that for the duration of the flu season our health care workers need to be immunized or will have to wear a mask in order to protect our patients.”
“We absolutely encourage our staff to keep getting immunized. We continue to offer clinics this week and next. Vaccines, of course, are also encouraged in the community, so people can be immunized in a number of places and there’s no shortage of access to the vaccine,” adds Dawar.
VCH is sending out reminders this week to workers who haven’t got the shot yet. Meantime, the BC Nurses’ Union is also telling its more than 40,000 members to do it.
Last flu season, about three-quarters of health care workers got the shot.
Two years ago, the province made it mandatory for health care workers to get immunized or wear a face mask at work.
