THUNDER BAY – Monday marked the deadline for long-term care staff to show proof of their first dose of vaccination or face consequences in terms of their employment and their ability to attend the workplace.
“Today, a number of employers are dealing with looking at their staffing problems,” said Andy Savela, director of health care with Unifor Canada. “Unfortunately, there’s going to be issues caused by the day and, you know, trying to shore up their staffing and face the potential of losing staff that could have worked up to today.”
There are currently six long-term care homes in the city of Thunder Bay, many of which are already facing severe shortages in staffing, which some are worried will only get worse with the provincial mandate.
By directive of the Ministry of Long-Term Care, all Ontario long-term care home staff must provide proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 15 to be eligible to report to work.
“Our understanding is that it’s a province-wide mandate, and [Unifor] represents about 30,000 health care workers in the province of Ontario, so we’ll be watching what happens in all of those workplaces,” Savela said.
"With the current staffing crisis, this is going to unfortunately cause a lot of problems in terms of people being able to shore up their staffing, employers... having enough staff to safely run the facilities.”
The provincial mandate for all staff and visitors to long-term care homes in Ontario was introduced in early October as part of the government’s plan to protect long-term care residents and staff during the Delta-driven fourth wave.
“We know that long-term care residents have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. As new variants continue to spread, we are seeing a growing number of outbreaks in long-term care homes where the risk to those most vulnerable remains high,” said Rod Phillips, Minister of Long-Term Care on Oct. 1.
“This enhanced suite of measures, including mandatory vaccinations for those working in the homes of long-term care residents, is one more way we will provide them the greatest level of protection possible.”
According to Savela, roughly 85 to 90 per cent of LTC staff are vaccinated. The St. Joseph’s Care Group, meanwhile, said Monday that 97 per cent of their staff actively working in long-term care have provided proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Resident care would not be impacted, the agency said.
Unifor also held multiple education sessions on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine in the weeks leading up to the deadline.
“We had a number of sessions with professionals like Dr. Tara Moriarty who headed a team of people very well versed on the vaccine and an open spot where people could attend to ask questions, hear the information and, I hope, to alleviate some of their fears in terms of getting the vaccine,” said Savela.
“I think there’s still a lot of people very concerned about, you know, the safety of the vaccine as it pertains to them if they have health issues that they feel might be compromised because of the vaccine, and then, there’s a certain part of our membership that just feels strongly that they don’t want to get vaccinated.”
The biggest concern Unifor has with the vaccine mandate is the already present staffing shortage that will need to be monitored closely as the mandate comes into effect.
