Not all trauma team members vaccinated: paramedic

By Gillian Slade on March 17, 2021.

Members of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta in Edmonton. Photo courtesy Ken Dalton/ Royal Alexandra Hospital

LETHBRIDGE HERALDGslade@abnewsgroup.com

A paramedic and board member of the Health Science Association of Alberta (HSAA) says currently only some members of trauma teams at hospitals across the province have had the opportunity to get a COVID vaccination.
Jason Soklofske, paramedic and a board member of the HSAA, says when a patient is brought into the emergency department a trauma team is often assembled to provide medical care. The paramedic and physician on the team have already had the opportunity to get a COVID vaccination. The laboratory worker, X-Ray and CT technicians working alongside the team with the patient have still not been given a chance for the vaccine.
Soklofse says it is unfair that the medical colleagues attending to the same patient, who may already have tested positive for COVID, do not have the same protection that a vaccination affords. He says health inspectors are also at risk as they too have not been given an opportunity yet to be vaccinated.
The provincial government rolled out the next phase of vaccine qualifications -Phase 2A on Monday, March 15. These hospital workers are not included in this phase.
“Healthcare workers providing direct and acute patient care who have a high potential for spread to high risk individuals, will be eligible in Phase 2C,” said James Wood spokesperson for Alberta Health Services (AHS). “Alberta Health (the government ministry) determines the phasing of the immunization process and more detailed information will be released prior to each group becoming eligible in the phased immunization program.”
Wood says that decisions on who is included in each phase has been based on the following guiding principles: Reducing acute care demand; Protecting critical workforce; Enhancing the flow of patients and residents through the system; and Preventing COVID-19 outbreaks.
“Sequencing decisions should not be interpreted as a value judgement on the role of any particular healthcare worker…” said Wood.
He says no one has been forgotten and AHS continues to work with Alberta Health on the details related to future sequencing and eligibility.
There is no date yet on when Phase 2C will commence.
Soklofske says that is frustrating for all concerned.

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