The Nurses Union of Alberta is concerned about the Alberta government’s plans to lift a health care order that has prevented health care workers from working at more than one continuing care facility.
Ongoing care centers are home to some of Alberta’s most vulnerable people when it comes to COVID-19.
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In April 2020, the province announced that workers would be restricted to one site to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread, but now the province intends to lift that restriction by February 16th.
“The primary thing we learned at SARS is that healthcare workers working at more than one site only increase the chance of transfer. Now that we are moving into a wave where this variant is incredibly transferable, it seems to be the very worst time to try to eliminate the order, ”said David Harrigan, the director of labor relations with the United Nurses of Alberta.
UNA, along with other unions and employers, was consulted by the province in November on lifting the one-place rule.
Harrigan said the union at the time thought mid-February looked reasonable, but said Omicron had changed it.
Harrigan said the nurses’ union sent an e-mail to the province last week expressing concern about the repeal of the order, but the union sent an e-mail on behalf of Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, received a statement stating that “due to staff challenges in continuing care, operators indicate that it is necessary to consider lifting all or some of the restrictions possible before February 16, 2022 to gain access to staff to fill gaps created by omicron-related absences and enable on-site reorientation of staff who will return to their workplace (s) after an absence of almost two years, ”
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But Harrigan thinks it makes more sense to attract more workers to work in continuing care facilities.
“This industry must do what every other industry does. “When you can not attract staff, you increase the compensation, but instead of doing so, they make an order to say let’s put our most vulnerable people in a potentially dangerous situation,” Harrigan said.
Alberta Health said Omicron is causing a rapid increase in cases in continuing care, in parallel with distribution in the wider community, but much less serious outcomes.
A ministry spokesman said vaccines reduced the severity of cases in ongoing care.
According to Alberta Health, as of January 12, there were three deaths associated with continued care outbreaks in the current wave, compared to 153 deaths in the 4th wave (Delta) and 1,042 deaths in the December 2020 – January wave before widespread vaccination.
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The Brenda Strafford Foundation (BSF) is a senior charity that runs four continuing care facilities in Calgary.
President and CEO Mike Conroy said in a statement Sunday that the restriction was an important security measure early in the pandemic, but that BSF supports the lifting of this policy now based on protecting high vaccination rates among residents and staff.
“We look forward to welcoming the return of staff who are limited to working at more than one premises to help strengthen our staff levels,” Conroy said.
BC, Ontario and Manitoba last year lifted similar restrictions for health care workers who were fully vaccinated.
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