Staff and volunteers at the Mission Hospice Society’s Christine Morrison Hospice – a 10-bed facility located inside Mission Memorial Hospital – want Pokemon Go players to show some respect.
Apparently, the end of life care facility is a “hotspot” for the game and players have been wandering inside the building, which is causing a disturbance for patients and their families.
The Hospice Society is asking the public to respect the privacy of the patients and stay away from the location.
“The Christine Morrison Hospice is an end of life care facility, not a Pokemon stop,” said Angel Elias, executive director of the hospice society.
“I can’t believe it,” she added.
Elias said while she understands that a lot of people are playing the game, they need to go elsewhere and not disturb the staff or patients.
“They’re actually going into the elevator and going up to the third floor,” she said. “Please respect the families and the patients. Go get your coins and your Pokemon stuff elsewhere.”
The society has contacted the game manufacturers through its complaints website and applied to be removed from the Pokemon game.
“We were told that because of the astronomical amounts of emails they’ve been receiving it could take two or three weeks before they will be able to respond,” said Elias.
Pokemon Go is an augmented-reality game launched in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan earlier this month. It arrived in Canada this week.
The game sends players into the real world to search for the mythical digital pocket monsters known as Pokemon, who appear on screen when users hold up their smartphones in various locations at various times of the day.