At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most hospitals in Canada adopted no-visitor policies because of concern that visitors would spread the virus. It was also a way of preserving personal protective equipment, which was in short supply at the time. Now, almost one year later, the authors of a commentary published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal argue that it’s time to reconsider such a strict policy. In this podcast, Dr. Andreas Laupacis, editor-in-chief of CMAJ, interviews one of the authors of the commentary, Dr. Fahad Razak, a general internist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Also joining the conversation are Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, and Corinna Riquelme who is a care partner and a member of the Patient and Family Advisory Council at St. Mary’s. To read the commentary published in CMAJ: https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.202636Read the podcast transcript: https://www.cmaj.ca/transcript-202636-----------------------------------This podcast episode is brought to you by Shingrix. Learn more at:www.shingrix.ca/en-ca/index.html-----------------------------------Subscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.

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Relaxing hospital no-visitor policies