Stressed workers not to blame for spread of COVID-19
Healthcare workers should immediately be restricted to working for only one long-term care or retirement home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO).
According to The Canadian Press, Doris Grinspun, CEO of RNAO, said she has been "pleading" with provincial health officials to make the change for weeks as outbreaks continue to attack vulnerable seniors.
Grinspun said some healthcare workers often hold jobs in multiple homes because they're unable to get full-time work, and this practice continues even during the pandemic.
Grinspun said that COVID-10 "is expanding like fire" in the province's senior's homes. "I don't see the firefighters coming ahead of it. We're letting the house burn and then we come in and we're trying to save some. This is more than a request, it's a plea," she said.
The province has reported outbreaks in 58 long-term care homes, 464 COVID-19 cases among residents and 78 deaths. Among the cases, 351 were reported among staff in the facilities.
Grinspun also noted that healthcare workers are not to blame for working in multiple homes, citing their years of low pay, lack of benefits and lack of full-time work have.
"They need to make a living. They work in two or three nursing homes," she said.
Grinspun calls on the government to ensure that staff work in one home only, and those who cannot be given full-time hours must receive wage enhancement, so they won’t see work in other places.
The province must also make surgical masks widely available to the staff and conduct random testing for COVID-19 among residents to aggressively increase monitoring, she said.
