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Caregivers weigh COVID jab

by Barbados Today
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David Leacock

The director of Barbados’ lone Psychiatric Hospital pushed back Tuesday against suggestions that staff, particularly nurses, are sceptical about taking the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

David Leacock believes it is perfectly reasonable for even frontline healthcare workers to seek further information and conduct independent research before accepting the jab.

Perspectives on the issue, however, may largely depend on who you ask.

President of the Barbados Nurses Association (BNA) Joannah Waterman on Sunday expressed serious concern with low vaccine uptake among nurses at the Psychiatric and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals.

General Secretary of the Unity Workers Union (UWU) Senator Caswell Franklyn earlier this week backed the nurses’ decision to refuse the vaccine as he confirmed reports of scepticism.

But Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Wayne Waldron told Barbados TODAY he was entirely unaware of such doubts among the ranks of nurses.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Leacock admitted that in the first week of the vaccination rollout, the Psychiatric Hospital has fallen just short with less than 20 per cent of the 430 members of staff accepting the jab.

He told Barbados TODAY: “With anything that is new, people should be given a time period to become comfortable before actually taking the vaccine. So we are equally giving people time to get comfortable with the whole situation and we are not trying to force it.

“It is still a voluntary system, so we are giving staff the opportunity to become educated on their own and where possible if there are any gaps, we will fill in for them.

“It’s not like a case of MMR [measles, mumps and rubella] or polio going around where you know all of the different things about it years ahead of time. It was a very short time period for persons to become aware.”

With that in mind, the Black Rock St. Michael hospital has launched an awareness programme to inform staff of the vaccine’s benefits and side effects.

Since then, the hospital director said more nurses are coming forward, prompting the organisation to set a target of 40 per cent of staff at the next available opportunity.

“We didn’t quite hit the target as yet, but we’re hoping at least in the next batch of persons we would actually be able to reach 40 per cent of staff and we set an internal target of having 80 per cent of staff vaccinated within a month or so,” Leacock revealed, after a walkaround of the compound to hear the views of staff.

“I myself had the vaccine [last] Friday and had some mild soreness in the arm. Other than that no other side effects were observed and in speaking to staff they said they felt more comfortable knowing that some of us had actually taken the vaccine without any serious side effects. Since then, they have actually put their names down to be in the next set of persons,” he reported.

“Others have done their reading and are satisfied that the vaccine doesn’t pose a major risk to them.”

Once the 80 per cent staff mark is reached, patients, many of whom are elderly, will also be offered the shots.

“It has been said going forward to fight the pandemic, the issue of reducing the risk to vulnerable persons is critical. A large part of our population here beyond our staff is made up of elderly persons. So we want to give them the  best chance of being well throughout this pandemic,” he explained

Thus far, the hospital recorded three confirmed COVID-19 cases among staff and another three among patients who have all since recovered.

Going forward, the director said staff are being trained in rapid testing to ensure they and their patients remain COVID-free.

(kareemsmith@barbadostoday)

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