Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 11, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMA4 C M Y K PAGE A4 FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 2022NEWS I COVID-19 PANDEMIC KILDONAN PARK GOLF COURSE RE D RI VE R CHIEF PEGUIS TRAIL MA IN ST PERIMETER HWY RIDGECREST AVE SC OT IA ST HE ND ER SO N HW Y KILDONAN PARK Where Caring is Our Number One Concern™ PROUDLY CANADIAN www.allseniorscare.com River Ridge II The Experts in Seniors Care 4 Palliative Care 4 Memory Care 4 Physical Care Call us today to discuss a customized care plan to meet your needs Call Chassity to schedule your personal visit! 204.272.0369 Private Secure Suites Available for Immediate Occupancy 2701 Scotia Street (Off Ridgecrest) 204.586.2273 Winnipeg’s Alternative to Long Term Care within Luxury Retirement Living Boulevard North THE Phase II WITH the provincial mask mandate lifting March 15, Manitobans are being reminded masks will still be required in hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and other health-care facilities. The policy will still be in place at all Shared Health facilities, and in other care settings, in- cluding long-term care. Doctors in the province have recommended people continue to wear masks in other indoor public places even after public health orders no longer require them. Continuing to wear masks in health-care set- tings protects patients and staff, Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Kristjan Thompson said Thursday. No timeline has been released for how long health facilities will keep the mask rule, but Thompson said the policy should remain as long as there’s good evidence to show masks help pre- vent spreading illnesses. He also recommended students continue to wear masks at school. The province announced March 4 masks in schools will no longer be re- quired, as of March 15. “Like any other public place, it’s appropriate to wear a mask in a school, at least a little while lon- ger, while COVID’s circulating in our communi- ties,” Thompson said. On Feb. 28, the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of Manitoba issued guidance to its mem- bers in light of the lifting restrictions. It recommended mask use, but stated repeated- ly patients must not be turned away and can’t be denied care even if they are unmasked, unvacci- nated or have COVID-19 symptoms. After receiving feedback from members, the college updated its guidance March 8, instead focusing on the continued promotion of masks in clinics. It suggested offering masks to unmasked patients, scheduling virtual visits when possible, or asking unmasked patients to wait in their car instead of in the waiting room. “Physicians must apply their knowledge, skill and judgment to reduce the risk for everyone present at the clinic; however, patients cannot be denied in-person care. Following these steps al- lows you to treat patients with COVID-19 symp- toms, with COVID-19, unvaccinated or those who do not comply with your clinic’s mask policy, un- der the same ethical obligations that apply to all patients,” the updated guidance states. During a news conference Thursday, Thompson said Doctors Manitoba wasn’t consulted when the college issued its initial guidance. He said physi- cians have always had a duty to care for patients, and that doesn’t change because of the provincial restrictions being lifted. “Physicians do have a duty to provide care… how that care is provided is a clinical decision that is up to the physician in conjunction with their patient. There are other options that could allow for a more safe encounter,” Thompson said. He hopes doctors and health-care workers don’t face threats or violence over the mask require- ment, and emphasized they also have a duty to protect the most vulnerable. “I would hope that Manitobans understand that it’s our civic duty to take care of one another,” Thompson said. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Manitoba health facilities retain mask-use policy KATIE MAY VICTORIA — British Columbia will lift its mask mandate, restore long-term care visits and drop capacity limits on faith gatherings starting Fri- day. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said cases of COVID-19 have come down dramatical- ly in the last few weeks and as transmission goes down, so do the risks. “While today is another really positive step forward, we have to be ready to bring some tools back, if necessary, depending on the situation as it changes,” Henry told a news conference Thurs- day. Starting on April 8, the B.C. vaccine card will no longer be required to access restaurants and other venues, while businesses can shift away from their COVID-19 safety plans. Public health orders on overnight child and youth camps will also be lifted on Friday. Guide- lines for health checks, physical distancing and visitors at schools will be rescinded when stu- dents return from spring break on April 4. “The need for every single one of these partic- ular layers of protection has dropped below the threshold where we need to have an order for them to be in place. That means we can move from a mandated approach to an empowered self-management approach.” Henry said B.C. did well in containing the lat- est wave of COVID-19 compared with other juris- dictions across the country, with lower infections and hospital admissions. She said the science shows the risks are much lower, and while they are not zero, she’s confident health officials can safely make the changes. Masks may still be necessary in some work- places, including those that are federally regulat- ed, Henry said. She said masks will no longer be required under an order on Friday, but “some people in some loca- tions will continue to use masks personally or in their business, and that’s OK. We need to support that. We need to recognize that we all have our own risks and our own vulnerabilities.” — The Canadian Press B.C. drops masks, cards, limits on faith gatherings W AR and the potential for fur-ther unrest in eastern Europe has redirected at least one Manitoban seeking an end to their time on the province’s surgery wait lists. Former radio DJ — and current Great Tastes of Manitoba host — Dez Daniels will be on an operating table today, get- ting her right hip replaced in a Mexican hospital, instead a facility in Lithuania. Daniels, who like some Manitobans tired of waiting in pain due to long sur- gical wait times made even worse by COVID-19 pandemic delays, had orig- inally opted for getting out-of-pocket surgery in the Baltic country, but the initial build-up of Russian forces — which has since culminated in the in- vasion of Ukraine — changed her mind. “I was booked for surgery in Lithuania in April,” the 48-year-old said Thursday by phone from Mexico. “Then, there was all this potential unrest near there and I decided as much as I wanted to go to Lithuania, I didn’t feel safe. I pivoted and have come to Mexico. “When you can’t walk, you don’t want to be in a position where you have to run.” Lithuania, part of the former Soviet Union that declared its independence in 1990, shares a border with Belarus, which has supported the Russian inva- sion. If it hadn’t been for a bout of COVID-19, Daniels would already be weeks into recovery. “I was originally booked for surgery in Lithuania on Jan. 27, but then I con- tracted COVID over Christmas,” she said. “The policy is if you had a positive test, you can’t have surgery for three months even if you have a negative test. So I pushed it back to April.” However, Daniels said, whether Lith- uania, Mexico — or even Winnipeg — she needed the surgery now and wasn’t willing to wait 18 months, a length that didn’t appear to be changing. Her hip had deteriorated due to osteoarthritis. “I’ve been in so much pain I haven’t been able to do many things,” she said. “It’s a constant pain. I can’t even lie down in any position without feeling it. “It is almost a negotiation with my body all the time. I can walk short dis- tances, but then the pain becomes intol- erable. These are things I never thought of before. I was a runner. It seems cli- che, but it is the simple things I miss doing. “But as wonderful as Mexico is, I would 100 per cent rather be doing this at home.” Daniels isn’t the only Manitoban so fed up waiting for surgery they have paid for the procedure elsewhere. In recent months, Max Johnson, for- mer owner of a local travel agency, travelled to Lithuania for a knee re- placement. Other Manitobans have paid to have surgical procedures in Latvia, the United States, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. Doctors Manitoba said Thursday the overall backlog of diagnostic and sur- gical procedures due to the pandemic has jumped by 7,748 in the last month, to 161,585. The backlog for hip and knee replace- ments has actually dropped dramati- cally — but not because of a surgeon’s scalpel. Doctors Manitoba said it had estimat- ed the backlog for those surgeries at 9,616. However, spokesman Keir John- son admitted Thursday the organization had based its original number on a 2019 statistic, which was later updated by Manitoba Health. “We didn’t notice it had changed,” Johnson said. “(The surgical wait time) task force bought it to our attention. But, in the end, it doesn’t mean any changes for the people on the list.” Johnson said he knows why people who can are opting for surgeries else- where. “I totally understand why people are doing it,” he said. “We really need to bring more capacity here to get more done here.” Daniels said it was to cost about $15,000 to have surgery in Lithuania; moving it to Mexico will cost her an ex- tra $5,000-$6,000. “I looked elsewhere in Canada for the surgery and it would have cost me $30,000, so it is still less to be here,” she said. “This isn’t an option for a lot of people — I don’t take this for granted.” Daniels called for “immediate gov- ernment intervention” to clear wait lists. “A new hip or knee means a return to a basic quality of life for people, includ- ing everything from being able to work at full capacity, care for our families and, honestly, just take a walk around the block as a means of helping support one’s mental health.” kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca War leads to change of venue for hip surgery KEVIN ROLLASON ‘I didn’t feel safe. I pivoted and have come to Mexico’ DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES ‘When you can’t walk, you don’t want to be in a position where you have to run,’ says Dez Daniels, who decided against war-adjacent Lithuania. A_04_Mar-11-22_FP_01.indd 4 2022-03-10 9:11 PM ;