SHA employee vaccine program to start this month

This month, all Saskatchewan Health Authority employees will have to either be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to a testing program on their own dime.

In mid-October, employees had to declare whether they intended to be vaccinated by the start date. Derek Miller, the SHA’s chief of emergency operations, said about 43,000 people had made their declaration.

Of those 43,000, just over 500 people said they would go into the testing program and several more indicated they would be seeking an accommodation. Miller said in total, about 1,100 employees have thus far said they will enter the testing program — which represents about 2.5 per cent of the SHA’s workforce.

Miller thinks 1,100 is a reasonable number in this situation.

“We’re still very happy with the level of individuals that have self-declared that they will be fully immunized,” he said.

About 6,000 employees still need to clarify their declaration, according to Miller, because of errors or mismatches with names and employee numbers.

The authority is planning for up to 5,000 people to enter the monitored testing program but Miller said he couldn’t speculate on how many will end up accessing the program.

Miller said the SHA is very interested to see what it’s going to encounter as the program rolls out.

“We do believe that this program is essential for us to be able to maintain a safe environment for our patients or residents as well as our staff and physicians and others that are accessing those facilities,” said Miller.

Miller said next week the portal to enter proof of vaccination or the testing program will open for out-of-scope managers and staff, as well as physician leaders. The testing program for them would start the following week.

In-scope staff and practitioner staff will get access to the portal as of Nov. 15, and the testing program for them would start Nov. 23.