ESTEVAN - A set of new health regulations has been implemented last week, affecting many businesses and organizations' daily operations.
Starting Oct. 1, proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result is required in Saskatchewan for public access to a range of businesses, event venues, as well as for all provincial government ministry, crown and agency employees.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority has also implemented a vaccination requirement for all staff in the health region, with a deadline of early November for completion. But what does it mean for the healthcare system from the patients' perspective?
The Mercury has reached out to St. Joseph's Hospital to check how these new health measures affect their operations and what people in the area can expect if they need medical help.
Cheryl Harrison, director of patient services, said that the hospital's policy is that they still treat all people that need medical help, irrespective of their status.
"We don't require an immunization status. We treat everybody," Harrison said. "Patients will be treated like they would at any other time. And if they're symptomatic, they'll go into COVID room, we would swab them at that time to see what we're dealing with and what we're treating; it will be part of our testing process."
Masks are mandatory in the building.
The main procedure for non-emergency inquiries hasn't changed: patients need to phone the doctor's office and make an appointment. What happens after that may vary from doctor to doctor. Depending on the situation, the physicians decide how to proceed from there. A lot has been done over the phone since the beginning of the pandemic, but Harrison said doctors have different processes and they do see patients in person when needed.
"There's a hybrid model and physicians are doing both virtual and in-person visits," Harrison said.
However, if anyone is coming to the hospital for any kind of service, they need to undergo a general screening process. With scheduled appointments, a lot is done over the phone, but with emergencies, the screening happens at the doors, and if it is a suspected case of COVID-19, then the patient is taken to a separate room to prevent the spread.
"Let's say you need to come to our emergency room, when you come to the door, providing you are not able to answer questions, then you would be seen immediately, but if you're coming to the door and need emergency services, we have screening questions at the door and you will be given a mask," Harrison explained.
"If you're showing symptoms that could be COVID, then we escort you immediately into a room that we have set aside just for assessing COVID."
While regular doctor appointments continue, as usual, the situation with surgeries has changed.
"We are in a slowdown situation. All emergent and urgent surgeries and endoscopies are being performed. But elective surgeries and elective endoscopies have been stopped at the moment," Harrison said.
The emergency and urgent surgeries take about as much time as before. If the medical staff doesn't know the COVID status of the patient, they treat them as if they were positive and perform the surgery wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE) and shields and performing all other steps necessary for protection.
While regular surgeries were put on hold due to COVID, Harrison suggested that people shouldn't wait and should still "progress their usual route" with their medical inquiries.
"We're not letting anything go past six weeks. We are watching our six-week waiting period and considering them urgent. So it's a slowdown, but we want to keep everybody up to date. Anything cancer-related, those kinds of things, none of those things have slowed down," Harrison noted.
St. Joseph's Hospital does their best to ensure they minimize the risks of the spread of COVID, as patients with any symptoms are admitted separately so people that reach out to the hospital with other issues don't get it. However, Harrison said that the risk of getting any infection or virus might be higher at any hospital just due to the nature of the facility.
"You have a higher risk of acquiring anything where there might be an infection. So like when you're sitting in the waiting room, the other person may not know they have COVID. But if anyone comes in and is identified as having symptoms of COVID, they're immediately isolated into a room. So they will not be infecting anyone around them," Harrison said.
She also pointed out that while services are provided, at this time people should only come to the hospital when they need to.
"Yes, there are sick people here. But we do our best to keep them isolated, and cleaning and all those things that need to be in place to keep the infections down," Harrison said.
While she couldn't give any specific information on COVID-19 cases in the area due to confidentiality reasons, she said that the hospital is seeing COVID people at this time.
