Patients, health workers say masks needed in Calgary hospitals
CBC
Some patients, nurses and doctors are calling for Calgary hospitals to bring in a mask requirement due to concerns about COVID-19.
An Alberta Health Services masking directive, put in place earlier this month to stem transmission, allows individual sites to adopt masking in consultation with health zone leaders and the local medical officer of health.
And while facilities in Edmonton and Red Deer have returned to masking, Calgary hospitals have not.
"I don't necessarily feel safe right now in hospitals. And yet this is where I have to come to get my life-saving treatment," said Natalie Kwadrans, a Calgary mother of two who has terminal cancer.
On Monday, she masked up and went to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre for the treatment she receives there every three weeks.
"COVID could kill me," she said, noting she saw very few staff and patients wearing masks.
"There are high risk and vulnerable patients, such as myself … sitting here at the Tom Baker, being exposed to potential COVID because people around me, including the staff, aren't masked."
The following Alberta health-care facilities have implemented the AHS masking directive:
The United Nurses of Alberta said it's time Alberta put a masking requirement in place in all hospitals.
"We just need to take a precautionary … approach and make sure that we're being proactive," said Cameron Westhead, second vice-president with the union.
"If we wait too long and react after the fact, we often have to introduce more dramatic measures."
He said the union is hearing from concerned nurses.
"They're looking for leadership, essentially. They want people who do have the data to make a decision," he said.
"It doesn't really matter where you live, it's protection that everybody deserves to have taken. So we're encouraging that AHS and other health-care employers would adopt a masking mandate across the province."