Health-care workers are in need of more protection, unions say
Health workers in Ontario getting sick at higher rates than in other jurisdictions
WATERLOO REGION — Healthcare workers aren’t getting the protection they need during the pandemic, hospital unions say.
And a new poll shows that in Waterloo Region, where one in four COVID cases is a healthcare worker, residents agree that more protection is needed.
Health-care workers in Ontario are getting sick from the disease at far higher rates than in other jurisdictions, but there has been no rethinking of the safety standards for them, said Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, at a news conference Monday.
At the peak, health-care workers accounted for about 17 per cent of all COVID cases in the province, he said. “Only Spain and China at the beginning were higher than Ontario, and yet there’s no reconsideration that we’re doing anything wrong,” he said.
Health-care workers have been hit even harder in Waterloo Region, where 26 per cent of all COVID cases have been health-care workers.
Ontario protocols assume the virus is transmitted by droplets from coughing or sneezing, and isn’t airborne, but Hurley says that should be revisited as we know more about the disease.
All health-care workers, hospital patients and long-termcare residents should be tested for COVID, not just those where there is an outbreak, he said. He also said health-care workers who come in contact with anyone suspected of having the disease — not just those performing risky procedures —
should have access to N95 masks. Such workers could include screeners in the emergency department, and cleaners and orderlies in an ICU with a COVID patient.
“You can replace masks but you can’t replace health-care workers” he said.
A poll released by Hurley’s group and the Canadian Union of Public Employees shows Waterloo Region residents agree with them. The May telephone poll of 573 residents in Kitchener, Waterloo, London, Guelph and Stratford showed most wanted more protections for health-care workers and long-term care residents.
Seventy-five per cent of Kitchener residents polled said the province needs to toughen its standards to protect healthcare workers. As well, 74 per cent would like to see significantly increased testing, especially of all staff and patients in hospitals and in long-term care. And 53 per cent wanted longterm-care residents with COVID moved to hospitals.
The experience of the SARS epidemic should have taught us some lessons, he said. “We went through SARS ... and had a royal commission which made a bunch of recommendations, including that if ever was a point in the future where there was a concern about whether we were using the appropriate precautions, we should always err on the side of being more careful.
“In this case, we are erring on the side of being less careful, and so people have died, and people have gotten sick, some of whom will never work again.”