Front-line healthcare workers in Ontario feel the province has abandoned them.
The findings of a ground-breaking study that featured interviews with nurses, personal support workers, clerical staff and custodians was released this morning in Pembroke. Researchers chronicled (in real time) how front-line workers like those working at the Pembroke Regional Hospital and area long-term care homes coped as COVID-19 unfolded.
The academic research was completed by Dr. James Brophy and Dr. Margaret Keith and co-authored by Michael Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE). The study is titled, “Sacrifice: Ontario Healthcare Workers in the Time of COVID-19”
Brophy says healthcare workers feel abandoned by the government who failed to prepare for an inevitable pandemic despite recommendations from SARS, dating back 18-years. He says since the first few weeks of the pandemic it was known that COVID-19 transmitted through the air with particles that could breach less protective surgical masks.
Keith says healthcare workers don’t need to be at such a high risk, they need to be given enough protection. Keith says demands for N95 masks have been ignored or denied by employers. One healthcare worker was told the mask and a face-shield they were provided was enough and if they were caught wearing an N95 mask they would be fined.
Another worker says they weren’t even allowed to bring in their own N95 mask and had to hide it under the other masks provided to feel safe on the job.
Keith goes on to say these workers know they are at increased risk of infection due to lack of protection resulting in anger, frustration and a sense of violation that may have lasting implications. She says one of the workers they talked to feels that employers won’t have enough counsellors to deal with the impact this will have
Brophy says the nurses, PSWs and custodians they interviewed felt they were being sacrificed by all levels of government that chose to water-down protections because of the lack of masks and other gear leaving them at greater risk of infection.
Brophy talked about an employee in a hospital serving a community about the size of Pembroke. He says this staff member was pregnant and asked to clean the room of a patient who had tested positive for COVID-19. This individual was denied her request to wear an N95 mask and for additional personal protective equipment (PPE) and when she called the Ministry of Labour, they refused to support her.
Another example sees a nurse in a medium sized hospital redeployed to a long-term care home. No PPE was provided to them and all supplies in the home were under lock and key. The nurse eventually ended up testing positive for the virus and multiple residents died.
One of the individuals interviewed said “no way would you send a firefighter into a burning building without proper PPE.”
Keith says some of the joint health and safety committees are rarely meeting in a time when they are critically needed. Staff are also reporting that the Ministry of Labour is not functioning as mandated leaving workers feeling abandoned.
Front-line healthcare workers in Ontario also can’t talk publicly about conditions without fear of reprisal. The study shows that these front-line workers are told not to be outside holding signs, not to talk to the media, but instead relay concerns to management. Keith says without studies like this or union spokespeople we would have no idea the conditions in these facilities. She adds some people refused to be interviewed for this study because they feared they might lose their jobs despite researchers doing everything possible to protect their identity.
Keith says it’s a predominantly female workforce, which is disproportionately racialized, operates in a toxic environment with alarming levels of physical violence, sexual harassment and verbal abuse. She adds the problem is a hierarchical workplace culture where management marginalizes workers’ voices and threatens them with reprisals for speaking up.
Brophy says if you had any other workplace with these types of numbers facing this type of risk and hazard you would have to say the system has failed and there is something fundamentally wrong. The report highlights data showing Ontario is 3rd from the bottom of the list of all developed nations in terms of hospital beds and nursing hours per patient. Brophy says Canada is tied with Mexico near the bottom of the list.
Keith says there are campaigns underway for 4-hours of care per resident per day, but talking to long-term care workers many are only getting about an hour each day and they can’t keep up. She says workers are frustrated and heart broken because they want to provide great care, but there’s just not enough hands or hours in the day. Keith adds with many long-term care homes in private hands and for profit, the money matters more than the care.
Authors of the study referred to the significantly worse outcomes in for-profit long-term care homes during the pandemic. The researches said the government must revamp priorities – “away from the profit motive and toward the health and well-being of persons.”
Hurley says the study findings lead to important recommendations including:
- raising staffing levels in hospitals and in long term care
- legislated protection to allow staff to speak out about conditions at work without reprisal
- the urgent need to rebuild a regulatory system that has failed health care workers
- providing access to the protective equipment staff require to be safe
- greater support from management and access to mental health supports.
Hurley says the findings of the study have already been forwarded off to the province.
The research was based on extensive interviews with 10 health care workers including at least one from Renfrew County. Other front-line workers were asked to be interviewed, but didn’t want to speak out for fear of reprisal. The study was done in collaboration with the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions – Canadian Union of Public Employees (OCHU-CUPE). A poll conducted about concerns regarding personal protection involved 3,000 members with 91% saying they felt the government had abandoned them.
