For months, people across our province, country and around the world have had to make unbelievable sacrifices due to COVID-19.
That includes, for some people, not even being able to say goodbye to their dying loved one in hospital.
But mixed messaging can make things even more gruelling for those who are grieving. Our NEWSTALK1010 host and contributor Bill Carroll was told by his mother’s doctor over the weekend that he would be able to visit and say goodbye before she passed away.
So he made the drive from Ottawa to Oshawa, but when he arrived, a nurse told him that because he lives in a hot-spot of COVID-19, he wouldn’t be able to enter.
The mixed messaging between health officials couldn’t come at a worse time.
NEWSTALK1010 asked Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe what’s being done to deal with this lack of communication.
“The policy should be that visitors, the close visitors, are allowed to come in, obviously wearing appropriate masking and so on,” she said. “I will follow up with Ontario Health later to get some communication out to all the hospitals in Ontario to remind them that in the situation when someone is dying and it’s palliative, family members should be allowed to visit with proper precautions.”
When asked about it today, Premier Doug Ford expressed his empathy, but also pointed out that these are the costs of COVID-19 that people need to think about.
“These are the consequences, real consequences, when people are running around, not following the guidelines, not following the procedures, the consequences might not be your mother, it may not be your grandparents, but it’s someone else’s that has to go through the pain,” Ford said. “God forbid it’s one of your loved ones that are in the hospital and they have hours or days to live.”