COVID sidelines health workers

Concerns about hospital staffing gaps with 113 testing positive, others isolating

In the last two weeks, more than 100 Saskatchewan health-care workers have tested positive for COVID-19 and more have had to self-isolate, leaving large holes in staffing and the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) searching for answers on what is happening to its members.

Since Nov. 16, 113 health-care workers across the province have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the provincial government's daily COVID-19 news releases.

This is nearly half of the total 261 health-care workers who have tested positive since the start of the pandemic in March.

Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), called these numbers “troubling” as more COVID-19 patients arrive in the province's intensive care units (ICU) and more long-term care residents test positive.

Despite the growing risk to health-care workers, Zambory said there has been little transparency from the provincial government or the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) on how many nurses have recently tested positive, how many are currently self-isolating and whether nurses are becoming infected at work or in the community.

“Even though we continue to ask for it, they won't give it to us,” she said.

“That is just not transparent and they chalk it up to privacy, HIPA (Health Information Protection Act) and all that, and of course people deserve to have their health care information private ... but we should be able to have a conversation to understand just how deeply affected we're going to be by all of this rather than always trying to play catch up.”

The provincial government noted in a news release on Saturday that 17 nurses from a single hospital were self-isolating after being exposed to COVID-19 in the community.

But Zambory said she has been told nothing of this situation and is beginning to question if it even happened.

“We have done our investigating and we can find nothing out about that ... We just haven't found it, 17 nurses self-isolating,” she said, adding it has been endlessly frustrating trying to get information on its members from the SHA.

The SHA did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline.

With more health-care staff self-isolating, whether after being exposed to COVID-19 at work or in the community, Zambory said the health-care system is also struggling to fill the gap in shifts.

She fears this staffing demand will lead to the SHA pulling nurses who had earlier been redeployed as contact tracers back into their regular positions, hurting the contact tracing system that is already thousands of phone calls behind.

If contact tracers can't meet the need, then other areas might have their staffing scaled back to compensate.

“We have to be willing to then think about where are we going to scale back, like non-elective surgeries, other areas that have potentially these people who have the specialty training but don't actually work in those areas,” Zambory said.

The SHA is also reacting to the higher risk for health-care workers.

In a memo sent to all ICU staff and physicians on Sunday, the SHA said it was requiring more personal protective equipment (PPE) for all critical care and ICU staff when doing any procedure that may cause the patient to produce fine droplets or aerosols.

“Health care worker sickness and isolation requirements have marked impacts on the ability to deliver care and overall wellness,” the memo read. “Because of rapidly increased community prevalence of COVID-19, the risk of unexpected exposure is climbing. Our location-based screening mechanisms are no longer able to mitigate risk,” the memo added.

Staff now have to use “full droplet-contact positive precautions,” which includes a face shield or fitted goggles, mask, gown and gloves.