Putting patient safety first: COVID-19 vaccination at QCH

October 15, 2021

At Queensway Carleton Hospital, we care for 500,000 people a year, often the most vulnerable in our community. It is our mission to keep them safe and provide quality care. Ensuring our staff and physicians are vaccinated against COVID-19 is an important tool in our safety toolkit.

Team QCH has done a good job of getting vaccinated. Ninety-eight percent of staff have made the choice to be vaccinated -- to keep each other safe and protect the patients entrusted to our care.

Unfortunately, a few members of our team have made the personal decision not to get vaccinated. We need to be compassionate toward these team members, but we also need to uphold the highest safety standards. As such, today and next week, these 37 employees will be placed on unpaid leave. Only 5 full-time staff have made the decision to not be vaccinated, while the remaining are part-time or casual.

These employees are spread across clinical and non-clinical roles throughout the hospital. We have plans in place to fill any gaps in the schedule. We do not anticipate any impact to our patient care and services.

We value each and every member of our team and don’t want to see any leave. We are hopeful they reconsider their decision so that they can remain employed at Queensway Carleton Hospital. For the few choosing to leave, we thank them for their contributions and wish them well.

As a hospital, safety simply has to be our top priority. The COVID-19 vaccines are safe, they are an important tool for patient safety, and they will help our community return to normal

 

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Media inquiries:
Kelly Spence, Communications Coordinator
kspence@qch.on.ca