It’s time to let unvaccinated healthcare workers come back to work, according to the region’s local government.
The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN) is calling on the Northern Health Authority (NHA) and the provincial government to end vaccine mandates for healthcare workers, as has been done for other public sector employees. The reason is not because the RDBN is suddenly afflicted with anti-vaccination sentiment, it is because the overall vaccination rate among healthcare workers is so high at a time when such workers are needed, that the directors feel the help outweighs the risk.
Right now, if you don’t have your COVID-19 shots, you are not allowed to work in most healthcare settings.
“Staff reached out to Northern Health requesting information regarding vacancies as a result of unvaccinated healthcare workers,” said Cheryl Anderson, the RDBN’s director of Corporate Services, in a written report to the board.
The following information was provided by Northern Health in response:
“The COVID-19 vaccine mandate was implemented in fall 2021. Healthcare workers were required to have their first dose by November 15, 2021 and their second 28-35 days later. In Northern Health, an overwhelming majority met the requirement, with 297 members of the workforce, across the entire north, deciding not to meet the requirements. Most of those individuals were casual employees. Overall provincially, most employees received their vaccinations and met the provincial health officer’s Hospital and Community COVID-19 Vaccination Status Information and Preventive Measures order.”
The number of Northern Health workers who refused or couldn’t receive the vaccine were calculated as being 48 full-time employees, 75 part-time employees, and 174 casual staff. That amounts to three per cent of the overall NHA workforce.
Northern Health added that the provincial government was well aware that “recruitment of health care workers has been a challenge…particularly in northern and rural regions,” and thus was working with all B.C. health authorities and post-secondary institutions to train and employ new workers who are fully vaccinated from the start of their careers.
“The new BC Health Human Resources Strategy will help to solve many of the recruitment and retention challenges we face and Northern Health is working hard on our part of addressing the northern recruitment and retention challenges,” the RDBN was told by Northern Health.
Although an unvaccinated healthcare worker poses a greater threat of spreading death or harm to patients and colleagues, the RDBN is not alone in suggesting that the risk is now mitigated by the extraordinarily high number of those who are vaccinated, in those settings, whereas the need for healthcare workers is critical.
North Cowichan’s council voted a couple of weeks ago to ask the province to end the unvaccinated healthcare worker shutdown. The mayor of Merritt is worried that their community’s Emergency Room closures - four, so far in 2023 - could be helped by bringing in unvaccinated healthcare professionals.
At the last meeting of the RDBN the board passed a resolution asking the North Central Local Government Association through to the Union of BC Municipalities to lobby as a whole to allow the return of healthcare workers who haven’t committed to personal COVID-19 protection.
The RDBN’s statement included the idea that “the shortage of healthcare workers in the Province of British Columbia has been exacerbated considerably by the dismissal of those healthcare workers who chose not to be vaccinated against COVID-19.”
Health minister Adrian Dix said this week that the number of unvaccinated healthcare professionals was in fact far from an exacerbating factor, their numbers being too small to tip that balance. The supply of healthcare workers would have to be addressed by a province wide campaign of recruitment, retention and education of new workers, he said.
The provincial government does recognize the high rate of B.C. vaccinations, however, and as of April 3, public employees in professions outside of the healthcare system will be allowed to return to their jobs.
The latest provincial update came earlier this month when the province stipulated that healthcare workers who are currently unvaccinated could come back to work if they got their first dose before March 24 and had their second shot scheduled for the 28- to 35-day booster window.
Dix also reasserted in media reports that no relaxation of the rules was being planned beyond that last chance. People with already compromised health were too vulnerable to be exposed to what those workers, few in number though they were, might be carrying into the healthcare environment.