TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Ontario government is playing a lethal game of chance with a new pandemic guidance policy that lets hospitals and long-term care facilities order potentially sick or still infectious front-line staff with COVID-19 back to work, say two of Ontario’s largest unions who are trying to stop the practice and keep both workers and patients safe.
This policy puts Ontarians at greater risk of being infected by making COVID-positive health care staff return to work prematurely and increases the risk of even more health care staff being forced off work, further adding to the current health human resource crisis, say the presidents of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) and SEIU Healthcare, Michael Hurley and Sharleen Stewart.
OCHU-CUPE and SEIU Healthcare are holding a virtual media conference on Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 1 p.m. to highlight their concerns about this new provincial guidance order.
On January 24, the unions sent a strongly worded letter https://bit.ly/OCHU220124 to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Health Minister Christine Elliott and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore outlining the risks associated with the province's January 13 guidance document entitled "Covid-19 Interim Guidance: Omicron Surge Management of Critical Staffing Shortages in Highest Risk Setting.”
In the letter to the province, the unions draw attention to the comments of Chief Medical Officer of Health for Canada that “the period of communicability” for Omicron is “no shorter than the other variants.”
Studies are showing that Omicron’s infectious period is longer than five days. As a result, there are growing calls – including from epidemiologists - for Ontario to return to the previous 10-day isolation policy to better protect patients, residents and health staff.
MEDIA CONFERENCE: |
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THURSDAY JANUARY 27, 2022 |
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1 p.m. |
PARTICIPANTS: |
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Michael Hurley, President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) |
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Sharleen Stewart, President, SEIU Healthcare |
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