Nova Scotia Union Refuses to Participate in the Provincial Government's Secretive Northwood Review
In a press release dated July 30, the Nova Scotia
Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) announced that due to
the secretive nature of the Northwood review, NSGEU President Jason
MacLean has decided not to take part in the process. Northwood Manor is
a huge facility in Halifax, with close to 600 residents and over 400
workers caring for them, where 53 residents died this spring of
COVID-19. Hundreds of residents and workers were also infected. At the
end of June, the Nova Scotia government announced that it is conducting
a review of the COVID-19 death toll at this long-term care home for
seniors. NSGEU members, who do not normally work at
Northwood Manor, were redeployed there during the height of the
pandemic, by ministerial order.
"The Northwood review process announced on June 30th
restricts anyone who appears before the committee from sharing that
same information publicly, and threatens them with risk of fines and
prison time," says the NSGEU President in the press release. At the end
of July, MacLean was invited to speak with members of the review
committee about NSGEU members' experience working at Northwood during
the first wave of COVID-19. Just hours before that meeting, the NSGEU
received an email from a committee staff person stating that, "Any
quality improvement information, is protected from disclosure under the
Quality Improvement Information Protection
Act."
This means that any information provided to the committee immediately
becomes a secret and cannot be made public in any form, not even
through the province's Freedom of Information Act. A person releasing
information is subject to a maximum fine of $10,000 and up to six
months in prison.
"The NSGEU accepted the invitation to work with the
review committee so we could share the experiences of our members. The
NSGEU stands with the 53 families who lost loved ones during the first
wave of the COVID pandemic," says MacLean. "We strongly believe that
the public interest is best served by holding a public inquiry, fully
disclosing all information, so the families, seniors, staff and Nova
Scotians get the answers they deserve." In light of the secrecy
surrounding the current review process, the press release says, the
NSGEU President made the decision not to speak to the committee. NSGEU
is also renewing its call for Premier Stephen McNeil to launch a full
public
inquiry into the deaths of the 53 residents at Northwood this spring.
NSGEU Releases Its Own Report on the Northwood Disaster
On August 4, NSGEU released a report chronicling what it
calls government neglect and delay that contributed to the tragedy at
Northwood Manor.[1] The report, entitled Neglecting Northwood, uses internal documents obtained from the Nova Scotia Health Authority and Department of Health
and Wellness through the province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
The report also includes information gathered from NSGEU members who
were deployed to Northwood during the outbreak. The report comes with
an 840-page Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP)
document that includes the records, documents and
communications related to the COVID-19 outbreak at Northwood Manor.
The report Neglecting Northwood details key decisions which, according to NSGEU, put the staff and residents at risk. Those include:
- Years of government cuts to
long term care facilities without understanding the risks this created
for the health and safety of those who live and work there;
- Dismissing infection control
concerns raised by Northwood and refusing to fund proposals that would
have eliminated the practice of double and triple bunking;
- Delaying the use of Personal
Protective Equipment, such as masks, in Northwood even though British
Columbia implemented the safety practices in their long-term care
facilities three weeks earlier; and
- Not responding quickly enough once the first case of COVID was identified in the facility.
"This report only scratches the surface of what happened
in Northwood. It raises many more questions than it can answer," writes
MacLean in the union's press release dated August 4. "Hiding mistakes
means we can't learn from them. Stephen McNeil must show leadership and
give the staff, residents and families what they deserve -- a full
public inquiry. Anything less is unacceptable."
Provocative Response from Nova Scotia Premier
to People's Concerns
 The
Nova Scotia government is insisting that it is not going to hold a
public inquiry on the deaths and overall situation in long-term care
facilities in the province, although that is what has been requested by
health care workers, families of residents and the public. Following
this review, which is being carried out by a Quality-Improvement
Committee comprised of two appointed members, the government of Nova
Scotia will publicly release only the recommendations that come out of
the panel's investigation, not the details of the investigation itself.
In order to justify its refusal to hold a public inquiry and to instead
use the process approved by the Quality-Improvement Information
Protection Act, the Premier gave the spurious argument that his
government has chosen the best approach for the investigators to get to
work as soon as possible so that their recommendations can be made
public as quickly as possible. He also said that such a review will
protect the personal information of Northwood residents. Workers reject
this
self-serving argument. They see it as a way to prevent the workers, the
patients and their families, and Nova Scotians at large from speaking
out and being heard publicly so that their input is there and their
solutions are also made public.
Faced with the stand of NSGEU not to participate and
the words of the NSGEU President that the review looks like a
"coverup," Premier McNeil provocatively dismissed MacLean's stand as
"rhetoric" that he says is helping no one. He added that "these are
people's lives in the health-care system we are trying to improve," as
if the workers
who provide the services and protect the people are a block to solving
the problems in the health care system and as if his government does
not have to render account for the deaths that occurred at Northwood.
The Premier added that he will investigate to find out if he has the
discretion, under the Quality Improvement Information Protection Act,
to allow people who want to participate in the review to make their
testimony public. But this is precisely what the people of Nova Scotia
and across Canada oppose, that governments give
themselves arbitrary discretionary power to make all the decisions
including who
has the right to speak and be heard, and are negating the concerns, the
experience, and the voice of the frontline workers who are protecting
the people during this pandemic. No problem that society is facing can
be solved in this way.
Note
1. To read the report Neglecting Northwood, click here.
The full Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy document can be found here.
This article was published in
Number 53 - August 6, 2020
Article Link:
Nova Scotia Union Refuses to Participate in the Provincial Government's Secretive Northwood Review
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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