AHS drops 26,000+ employees from vaccination rate tracking
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Summary
The mandatory vaccine policy announced by Alberta Health Services in August will require all personnel without approved vaccine accommodations to be fully vaccinated as of October 31. Over 3,500 Alberta healthcare workers sent an open letter to AHS demanding they rescind their vaccine mandate on September 20.
Transcript
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Information obtained by the Western Standard from Alberta Health Services shows vastly
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different rates of employee vaccination uptake than reported by AHS publicly. The records show
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a count of over 104,000 employees, with 69,000 reported being double vaccinated for a 66% vaccine
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uptake rate. However, that data was updated as of October 18 for the Alberta government's latest
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provincial COVID-19 address, with more than 26,000 employees removed from the count entirely.
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The removal of the 26,000 employees radically shifted the reporting vaccination uptake rate
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from 66% to 91.4%. The updated information showed vaccine uptake among employees had risen
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by over 2,647 in one week to a total of over 71,000. However, the total number of employees
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in this data set dropped from over 104,000 to just over 78,500, producing a new uptake rate of 91.4%.
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That new rate was then quoted by AHS President and CEO Dr. Verna Yu in Tuesday's provincial update.
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They did not note casual employees were dropped from the reporting.
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Yu said under 1% of employees were looking for a vaccine exemption and stated based on the numbers,
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there is very broad support of the vaccine policy. When reached for comment by the Western Standard,
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AHS said the discrepancy was due to the removal of casual employees from the total number of AHS
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employees recorded. AHS continued, saying there is about 29,000 casual staff within the system,
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although the number of active casual staff changes daily. About 74% of casual staff have provided proof
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of immunization. Based on the information provided from AHS, that leaves over 7,500 casual staff who have
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yet to report their vaccination status. AHS did not say why approximately 90% of its casual employees were
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dropped from the report, but has advised that only those casual employees who have been double
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vaccinated will be called on for shifts after the mandatory deadline of October 31. An AHS official
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told the Western Standard, the majority of those casual staff members who haven't provided proof of
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immunization likely simply haven't submitted their proof of immunization. It does not mean they are not
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immunized. You also said in her Tuesday's provincial update that 7% of full-time and part-time staff have
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yet to provide their proof of vaccination as well. As we've already highlighted, 92% of part-time and
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full-time AHS employees and 92% of physicians providing proof of immunization represents broad support of
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the vaccine policy, the AHS official said. The casual employee pool makes up nearly one-third of AHS's total
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number of employees. The mandatory vaccine policy announced by AHS in August will require all
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personnel without approved vaccine accommodations to be fully vaccinated as of October 31 to gain access
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to AHS facilities. Over 3,500 Alberta healthcare workers sent an open letter to AHS demanding they
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rescind their vaccine mandate on September 20. Calgary constitutional lawyer Carol Crossan represents
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the vaccinated and unvaccinated staff members who are seeking help to assist them in their right to
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choose COVID-19 vaccination or not. Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping rejected the open letter on
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September 29. Crossan has indicated to the Western Standard she will be working with this group of AHS workers