Unvaccinated patients cancel visits

There appeared to be much confusion regarding today’s rollout of safe zones that resulted in scores of Barbadians cancelling their appointments with health professionals, medical practitioners have reported.

Some doctors who spoke to Barbados TODAY on condition of anonymity said in some instances they saw less than half of their expected patients as persons chose to remain at home for fear of breaking the law.

On Saturday, an amended Emergency Management COVID-19 Order in the Official Gazette declared that safe zones would go into force on Monday.

All healthcare providers fall into the safe zones.

One doctor complained that they had seen mass cancellations which he attributed to the announcement that safe zones would be activated from today.

“There are two statutory instruments, No. 77 and No. 78 and No. 78 deals mostly with the employees and No. 77 says basically that no persons shall transact business in these areas if they are unvaccinated. So because of the confusion, even if it is not so and even if they are misinterpreting it, the patients interpreted it so today.

“I saw about half of my scheduled appointments today because people called to cancel. They weren’t sure if they could come and opted to err on the side of caution,” he said.

Another doctor also complained that she had noticed a substantial decrease today in the number of persons who came to her office.

She told Barbados TODAY that not only doctors would have been affected but also any person or health institution that provides services under the Health Services Act. This includes dentists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and even pharmacies.

She said it could potentially lead to a situation where unvaccinated persons would try to treat their illnesses on their own.

“There are some people who are going to come and some who are not going to come. It is frightening to think of what kind of effect that will have on unvaccinated persons who become ill. Are they just going to stay home and refuse medical treatment because they aren’t vaccinated and aren’t allowed to go in the safe zones?” she questioned.

“This could become very problematic because situations could arise where unvaccinated persons who are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms might not seek medical help because they aren’t allowed to enter these safe zones.”

Another irate doctor said while he was a firm believer in being vaccinated the safe zones were being used to force persons to become inoculated.

He said this was despite repeated assurances by Prime Minister Mia Mottley that Government would not enforce a mandatory vaccination policy.

“This is basically a vaccine passport. The problem is that if you call it those things you are going to get a knee-jerk response. They don’t want anybody to use the term mandatory vaccination or vaccine passport so they are obfuscating it by calling it a safe zone so that people don’t realize that those two things are happening.

“Health institutions are extremely critical and at some point most persons will have to seek medical treatment and you are saying to those persons that to gain access to those institutions you have to be vaccinated or you can’t enter,” he said.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb