On Thursday, April 23
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the Government of Saskatchewan and its Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab released their Return to Work Plan, which included a re-opening of medical services on May 4th. We have received many calls to the College inquiring if we know when you will be allowed to return to work. We completely understand how stressful this current situation is and not having a return-to-work date is adding to that anxiety. All the health care professionals in Alberta are waiting patiently to be provided direction from Public Health on when it will be safe to return to work. Public Health is working tirelessly to manage this pandemic, and although there has been a lot of speculation about when it will be safe to return to work, nothing official has been decided yet. Everybody is anxious but it’s still early as we don’t know if we have reached the top of the curve yet.
Please know that the CRDHA is doing everything that we can to work with Alberta Health (the government), AHS, and the other oral health regulators (dentists, dental assistants, denturists and dental technicians) to be involved in these pandemic discussions. We are also working together to prepare guidance on what will be required when you are allowed to return-to-work, including IPC, PPE, and screening based on the most recent research and evidence from around the world. This is a complicated issue, especially for the dental community, and we all want to return to a safe working environment for both the practitioners and the clients.
The CRDHA is committed to informing you, our registrants, of any direction that we receive from the government as quickly as we can.