Visitors to Hamilton hospitals must now have COVID shot as Omicron surges

Hamilton hospitals are introducing new visitor rules as COVID cases continue to surge.

Both Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton now require visitors to show a vaccine receipt or QR code with government ID to enter. HHS is also limiting the number of visitors who can see patients.

This follows Ontario introducing similar limits for visitors and caregivers in long-term care.

Many of our patients present with similar frailties," said a release from St. Joe's.

The rules apply to visitors, caregivers and support people, including those accompanying patients for appointments. There are exceptions at both hospitals for families of patients at end-of-life, partners of patients who are giving birth, parents of patients in the NICU and visitors who have proof of a medical exemption (or human rights exemption, in St. Joe's case) to the vaccine.

HHS also exempts essential caregivers for a family member requiring frequent support and for compassionate reasons, such as life or limb-threatening situations.

As of Wednesday, HHS is also allowing just two support people per patient, with only one allowed at the patient's bedside at a time. The visitors must be pre-identified and ideally be from the same household. No changes will be allowed to the list of visitors once they're identified. Children under 12 years old are not allowed.

St. Joe's already limits visitors to two per patient.

Outpatients at both hospitals, including in the emergency department, are not allowed to have a family member or caregiver accompany them unless they need cognitive, mobility or emotional support.

Maria Iqbal covers aging issues for The Spectator. miqbal@thespec.com