Public Sector Workers Continue
to Defend Their Rights and the Rights of All
Alberta Health Care Workers Reach Agreement on Safe and Effective Use of Personal Protective Equipment
- Peggy Morton -
Alberta Health Services (AHS), the Alberta
Union of
Provincial Employees (AUPE), Covenant Health
(CH), the Health Sciences
Association of Alberta (HSAA), and United Nurses
of Alberta (UNA)
reached a joint agreement on the safe and
effective use of personal
protective equipment (PPE) in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic on
March 27.
The agreement requires that a risk assessment
must be
conducted for every patient interaction to
ensure front-line health
care workers have the specific personal
protective equipment (PPE) they
need. "As partners in the response to COVID-19,
we trust our front-line
health care teams to make appropriate and
clinically sound decisions,"
the
agreement states.
"Employers and unions share the common goal of
protecting the health and safety of health care
workers. During the
current COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that
the appropriate steps
are taken to protect the health and safety of
all health care workers
while they provide high quality care to
Albertans and prevent exposure
to and transmission
of COVID-19. It is critical to ensure that
appropriate PPE is used by
all staff and physicians, while also preserving
supplies of specialized
equipment for when they are required to provide
care safely."
The unions brought forward many concerns
regarding the
proper standard for PPE. Of particular concern
has been the reluctance
of the AHS to provide fit-tested N95 respirators
when required. The
Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU)
established that health
care workers taking nasal swabs from patients
with known or suspected
cases of COVID-19 should perform a point-of-care
risk assessment. If
the assessment indicates the need for
respiratory protection, a
fit-tested N95 respirator as a minimum must be
worn." AHS had responded
to the UNA's demand that this standard be upheld
with a completely
arbitrary response saying that a fit-tested N95
was not necessary.
The agreements also specifies that the AHS and
Covenant
Health and the unions will work together to
assess the supply of PPE,
and the employers will continue to take action
to ensure an adequate
supply.
Congratulations to UNA, HSAA and AUPE and all
the health
care workers who actively defended their rights
and succeeded in
ensuring that proper PPE protection is in place.
AHS and Covenant Care
have acknowledged in the agreement that
front-line staff are the ones
competent to make appropriate and clinically
sound decisions. This was
the case before the current COVID-19 crisis, it
is the case during the
crisis and will be after the crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to reveal
why
decision-making power belongs in the hands of
health care workers and
their collectives. They have shown they are the
ones competent to make
decisions, based on what is needed to allow them
to do their work
safely and protect their health and that of
their patients.
This article was published in
Number 17 - April 2, 2020
Article Link:
Public Sector Workers Continue
To Defend Their Rights and the Rights of All: Alberta Health Care Workers Reach Agreement On Safe and Effective Use of Personal Protective Equipment - Peggy Morton
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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