A total of 51 people at Cambridge Memorial Hospital are out of a job as of Wednesday after choosing not get vaccinated against COVID-19 or being unwilling to show proof they had done so.
“We do not anticipate any impacts to our patient care and patient services,” CMH spokesperson Stephen Beckhoff told Global News in an email.
He said that 96.8 per cent of staff and physicians at the hospital are fully vaccinated against the virus and will continue to work.
The remainder will be put on unpaid leave Wednesday as the hospital follows a provincial mandate that requires all staff in high-risk settings to be vaccinated.
Over a month ago, the province’s medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, issued a directive that all hospitals needed to have a vaccination policy in place by Sept. 7.
On Sept. 1, Waterloo Region & Wellington County hospitals issued a joint announcement which said that staff, physicians, students, volunteers and contractors working in the institutions had until Oct. 12 to be vaccinated or they would be put on unpaid leave.
“Our response throughout the pandemic has been a collaborative approach across our community as we continue to protect our patients and our staff,” CMH CEO Patrick Gaskin stated at the time
“Our new joint vaccination policies are simply one more important step forward that we are taking to achieve this, together.”
Last week, the two Kitchener hospitals announced separately that they had begun to issue layoff notices to staff who were not in compliance.
On Thursday, St Mary’s General Hospital president Lee Fairclough said 98 per cent of staff are currently fully vaccinated, with some of the remaining having indicated they will follow suit.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the hospital said the number of staff that were issued layoff notices that will be suspended was in flux, but was currently sitting at around 30.
A day later, Grand River Hospital said that 228 of the hospitals 4,364 staff and physicians were also being given unpaid layoff notices.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Grand River Hospital spokesperson said that number had fallen to 171 staff and physicians (or 4.6 per cent) although there were still discussions with some of the remaining staff about the situation.
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