Health-care workers on brink: study
Employees face `unrelenting fear' as cases increase, researchers say
Health-care workers in Windsor and across Ontario — most notably those providing front-line care — are on the brink of physical and emotional collapse over fears of contracting COVID-19 as the number of cases continue to skyrocket, according to a local study released on Tuesday.
Two University of Windsor researchers detailed the struggles following interviews with nurses, personal support workers and custodians who sounded the alarm over the lack of proper personal protective equipment (PPE) for health-care workers, the Labour Ministry's failure to address workplace complaints and understaffing throughout the health-care system.
The study entitled Sacrificed: Ontario Healthcare Workers in the Time of COVID-19, by researchers James Brophy and Margaret Keith, highlights how the number of Ontario health-care workers infected with COVID-19 rose by 1,929 between Nov. 1 and Dec. 4 — an increase of nearly 25 per cent.
Locally, both Windsor Regional Hospital and Hotel-dieu Grace Healthcare are among those suffering from staff outbreaks, along with employee outbreaks at six area long-term care or retirement residences.
Sixteen Ontario health-care workers have died during the pandemic, a number that has the potential to increase in the coming weeks as cases continue to spread among front-line staff, the researchers said.
Health-care workers make up roughly 20 per cent of the latest virus cases, Brophy said.
“While everyone has COVID fatigue and worry, health-care workers are under serious stress at work and unrelenting fear,” he said.
Burnout is common, as is fear among workers that they could become infected by the virus and spread it to their families.
“Stress and overwork was already a problem that has become more critical during the pandemic,” Brophy said. “One worker we interviewed broke down crying and had to stop. Going into this, we did not expect the anguish, desperation and fear of the health-care workers.”
The study — done in collaboration with the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and Canadian Union of Public Employees (OCHU-CUPE) — is based on atlength interviews with 10 healthcare workers. The interviews were supplemented by a OCHU-CUPE poll involving 3,000 members about their concerns over personal protection and the pandemic.
About 91 per cent of those polled said they felt the government had “abandoned them,” Brophy said.
Study recommendations being passed on to the provincial government include raising staffing levels in hospitals and in long-term care, legislated protection to allow staff to speak out about conditions at work without reprisal, providing guaranteed access to PPE and improved support from management on access to mental-health supports.
With local hospitals under outbreak status, a Windsor Regional Hospital official says on-site safety remains paramount for staff and the community.
“The fact we haven't had spread within the hospital between patient-staff or staff-patient speaks volumes how PPE and the protocols we have in place are working,” said hospital spokesman Steve Erwin. “Now, that doesn't mean (spread) will never happen, so we have to stay vigilant.”
Windsor Regional employs more than 5,000 people who are also “out and about in the community,” he said.
“So, we are subject to many of the same risks as anyone outside the hospital,” Erwin said. “But our track record has been good and we plan to stay vigilant.”
While there were provincewide concerns around lack of PPE for staff when the pandemic began in March, he said equipment levels for staff at Windsor Regional have remained sufficient.
“The hospital always had a sixto-eight week supply of PPE entering this pandemic,” Erwin said. “Early in the pandemic, we purchased enough additional N-95 masks to get through multiple waves of COVID-19.”
Keith said the research study highlighted how women are at much greater risk at work, given the high proportion employed as nurses or PSWS.
Many personal support workers — often employed in private longterm care residences — are vulnerable to a lack of PPE protection, especially N-95 masks. Job loss seems a constant risk because they often also fall under a “racialized” group as new immigrants.
“Many are single parents or look after their elderly parents,” Keith said. “They are desperate for proper protection (at work). You never see firefighters entering a burning building without proper protection, but they (PSWS) don't have enough (PPE).
“Those on the front line fear reprisals (from employers). We heard of workers being fired if they tried to speak out about their working conditions. This intimidation and silencing of women is not acceptable.”
As many fall ill with the virus, workloads for the remaining frontline workers has grown increasingly unmanageable and the government has failed to act, she said.
CUPE represents 90,000 healthcare workers across Ontario, including 50,000 hospital staff, 35,000 in long-term care and 5,000 paramedics.
Considering the province previously faced pandemic scares such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), OCHU-CUPE president Michael Hurley said there are no excuses for the government's lack of regulatory and funding action to better protect health-care workers during COVID-19.
“There are systemic issues here on staffing and underfunding,” he said. “We have been hoping there would be a real look at the failures, but it's all been completely ignored. This has had real consequences and that needs to change — and quickly.”