Why people are being asked to change masks when at the hospital

A Winnipeg epidemiologist says policy changes regarding masks in hospital might need to be re-examined at after she was told remove her KN95 mask to put on a normal surgical mask.

Cynthia Carr said she went to the hospital Tuesday as a patient for a scheduled appointment. When she arrived, she put on a KN95 mask and went to the screening to get inside.

There, she was asked to take off her current mask and put on a regular surgical mask.

"I understand that there are policies in place, I guess, cleanliness of the mask, making sure they are in good repair. But the challenge for me is we worked really hard at that messaging about what are the best options and the province went through all that effort to provide free KN95 masks," she said.

"I was just surprised that I wasn't being offered a KN95 to replace my KN95; I was being offered a surgical mask."

Carr said she wants to make sure that this has nothing to do with staff, noting they are just doing their jobs.

However, she noted policies could be reviewed to provide optimal protection for all.

A spokesperson for Shared Health said the reason people are required to switch to a surgical mask is to make sure it is "clean, new and confirmed to meet the respiratory protection standards of a medical grade procedure mask."

"The policy was implemented due to an increase in the number of visitors wearing non-medically certified KN95 or similar respirators when arriving at our sites. Visitors still wanting to wear non-medically certified respirators are required to place a medical grade procedure mask over top of their respirator," the spokesperson said.

Carr said being perfect with requiring surgical masks, cannot be the enemy of best practices.

"If someone comes in with a KN95, and it seems to be in good condition, don't ask them to remove it and put on a surgical mask. Could that be considered?" asked Carr.

She said she doesn't want people to view COVID-19 as not important because of the mask policies that are being put in place in health care settings, adding the public needs to be aware of the new Omicron variants that are highly transmissible.