Ontario’s health minister says that her government has now received enough input from hospital administrators and health-care providers to make a final decision about whether or not to introduce a vaccine mandate for the sector.
Premier Doug Ford reached out to dozens of stakeholders back on Oct. 15 to solicit their input on the idea, however nearly two weeks later there has yet to be any resolution to the matter.
The comments from Christine Elliott during Question Period on Monday come as officials in British Columbia warn that some surgeries and procedures may have to be delayed or cancelled due to the need to place non-compliant workers in that province on unpaid leaves starting Tuesday.
“In British Columbia they have had to cancel some of their surgeries because they have 4,000 employees that are going to be leaving who are not vaccinated. It is a very important consideration,” Elliott said, as she promised clarity on the issue.
Ontario has previously announced that all workers, students and volunteers in long-term care homes must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 15.
But it has so far refused to extend the vaccine mandate to other health-care workers, despite calls from a number of experts, including the Ontario Hospital Association and the Ontario Science Advisory Table.
Speaking with reporters at Queen’s Park later on Monday, Minister of Long-Term Care Rod Phillips said that the outbreak data for long-term care homes has long “pointed to a risk” that is specific to the sector and supports the need for a vaccine mandate.
Phillips, however, said that the situation in British Columbia is part of the Ford government’s hesitancy in extending the mandate to other health-care settings.
“We want to continue those surgeries. So I think that’s why we’re operating in a very planful way on the health-care front,” Phillips said. “In the case of long-term-care it was very clear that this was necessary, we needed to protect our most vulnerable. Remember, hospitals are places where every Ontarian can go. With long-term care we are dealing with a select population with a great deal of vulnerability and with a history where we’ve seen what COVID can do.”
A number of other provinces have already introduced vaccine mandates for health care workers but Ford has expressed concern about the impact such a policy could have on resources, particularly for hospitals in more rural communities.
On Tuesday Phillips defended the different approach while stressing that there is not expected to be any “significant disruptions” to care as the mandates takes effect for long-term care workers later this month.
Meanwhile, in a separate availability with reporters NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said that the different approach to vaccine mandates “makes no sense” and “shows complete inconsistency.”
She said that mandating vaccination for health-care workers is the “right thing to do,” even if there are concerns about the impact that terminations could have on hospital resources.
“What we don’t want to see is COVID-19 spreading in our hospitals, we don’t want to see the most vulnerable folks who are in hospital from illness or surgeries exposed to COVID-19,” she said. “What we do want to see is a vaccine mandate which has been recommended by the experts. But once again Doug Ford doesn’t like to listen to what the experts have to say and that’s why we don’t have vaccine mandates in hospitals yet.”
More than 88 per cent of eligible Ontarians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. About 84.5 per cent of eligible Ontarians are fully vaccinated.
With files from The Canadian Press.
