Hastings County Long Term Care officials say there’s a problem in getting staff registered for COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
Long Term Care Director Debbie Rollins told a meeting of the Long Term Care committee on Wednesday that 58% of staff at Hastings Manor and 30% at Centennial Manor have been vaccinated.
“We had a real push initially when the vaccines were made available to the front line workers and there was a lot of hesitancy at that time because it was so new.”
“Now with the changes and I think the increase in variance, our team members are becoming more aware of the benefit of the vaccine and looking to get it.”
But Rollins says there is no direct link for the registration and the worker has to go to public health, call a number then fill out an application.
“That’s been causing a lot of issues for our team members. The ability to book directly into the provincial site when there’s appointments available would help.”
Rollins has reached out to Hastings Prince Edward Public Health and hopes to get the situation resolved. She also noted that there had been hesitancy about the vaccine among team members but thinks they are now more aware of the benefit of it.
Hastings County CAO Jim Pine notes that it’s not a problem in other pubic health areas and it should not be a problem here either, really. So we’re going to see if we can fix it. It’s really important.”
“If people who want to get the vaccine, of course, we want them to get the vaccine. And we want them to overcome any hesitancy that they may have with it. Making it difficult to book an appointment doesn’t help.”
Long Term Care officials were scheduled to meet with Public Health officials on Wednesday afternoon.
