WINNIPEG -- Lineups could be seen outside two Winnipeg hospitals Thursday morning as new screening measures came into effect.
Staff at Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital were observed lining up outside the hospitals at the start of their shifts.
As part of new screening measures from the province, all staff at healthcare facilities need to have their temperature checked before the start of their shift.
“These are extraordinary times, and extraordinary measures are needed to prevent COVID-19 from spreading in our health-care system,” The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority posted on its Facebook Page. “Physicians, nurses and all staff are doing everything they can to protect their patients, clients, residents and co-workers.”
Bob Moroz, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP), said he is concerned that his union members will have to start arriving even earlier for their scheduled shifts for the enhanced screening, noting workers are already arriving 15 to 20 minutes earlier.
“We do want people to be screened, and we do want the safety of our members and the public to be paramount, no doubt about it,” he said. “But we’re starting to get worried that our members are being asked to start reporting 30, 45 minutes before their shift begins.”
Moroz said he wants additional screening stations at hospitals to help reduce the lines and ensure workers can start their shifts on time.
“Our members and our healthcare workers have families, they have children, they have all of these things, all of these pressures of child care because schools are now closed indefinitely,” he said. “If the employer assumes that every single employee has the ability to attend work an hour early just in order to get through a queue, again, it doesn’t follow through all of the things that are facing our members right now.”
