Problem of Staff Shortages in Health Care Must Be Solved

- Rhonda Bruce -

Rhonda Bruce is a Rehabilitation Assistant and Regional Vice President, BC Interior, Hospital Employees Union

Workers' Forum: Can you tell us what the conditions are at present for health care workers and long-term care residents in the BC Interior?

Rhonda Bruce: I work in a long-term care home. COVID-19 and the public health measures that were put in place to deal with the pandemic have made the lives of the workers and of the residents very difficult. Residents have been isolated and deprived of important social contacts and workers are overworked and exhausted. We were working short before the pandemic and that continues. We never have enough staff. Recently our union did a survey that showed that over 12,000 members of the union, -- that includes food service, housekeeping, maintenance, and clerical workers as well as Care Aides, Activity Aides and other members of the nursing team like me, are contemplating leaving their jobs because they just can't take the stress any more.

After the single site orders were issued last year, the public health order that required that workers work in only one long-term care home, the government did take some action to train new Care Aides to cope with the shortage. They set up the Health Career Access Program which offered fast-tracked training that the government paid for. Because many of the workers who entered that program were already employed in health care, mainly in housekeeping and food services, the net increase of workers is not going to be enough. If thousands do leave the system, there may not be an increase at all. And that program only addresses the shortage of Care Aides, not the shortage of workers across the system.

The public health orders for masking and social distancing were changed in BC on July 1 so vaccinated workers did not have to mask but that didn't last long in the Interior because there was an increase in cases and now we're right back to masking and social distancing and all the other COVID-19 protocols. Residents can now have visits from family so their social isolation is not so bad.

WF: What is the impact of the wildfires that have devastated BC this summer?

RB: We were already pushed to the limit with COVID-19 when the wildfires hit and that has put even more stress on the system. Some seniors' homes were evacuated and the residents moved to other homes in the region or as far away as the Vancouver area. Some residents had to move more than once and when they moved some of the workers went with them but the disruption in their routines and surroundings caused all kinds of problems. Families were not always informed. One Care Aide was evacuated with nine residents from their facility to one in another community and within days four of the residents had serious falls. In some cases there was no hotel accommodation available for the staff who had to make do in makeshift accommodations in the care homes.

Hospitals have transferred some of their patients to long-term care homes to free up beds to deal with increasing COVID-19 cases and patients affected by the wildfires, which puts more pressure on us in long-term care. Many care homes have had to stop admitting new residents for the time being.

A lot of workers have been evacuated from their homes. My family was evacuated for over four weeks. Some workers have had to go far from their homes so are on leave from work. When you are evacuated and you need a hotel it can be a problem because all the hotels are already full with tourists and evacuees from other areas. You can end up far from home. Being evacuated adds another level of stress and the help that is provided by the Red Cross is cumbersome -- I was told I had to drive to a city three miles away to show ID to be able to get financial assistance. Not everyone can do that.

WF: What does the immediate future look like?

RB: I am very worried about what is going to happen in the fall. With the fourth wave and increasing COVID-19 cases and a staff shortage that was bad before all this and is becoming impossible now, I don't know how we are going to cope. Management is talking about going to "essential services." The "essential services" is something that happens when there is a strike, that the union and management negotiate an agreement about how many workers have to stay on the job but also how non-union staff, everyone from the CEO to the chaplain, are assigned work in different departments, kitchen, housekeeping and so on. In this situation it would be a way for management to help out with our work, but that's not really a solution because all those management people also have jobs to do.

What really worries me now is the mandatory vaccine policy. All workers in long-term care have until October 12 to be fully vaccinated or they will be terminated. My guess is that between 10 and 15 per cent of my co-workers are not going to be vaccinated. With the annual flu vaccines there are options for workers who do not get the flu shot -- masking is one of them and often if there is an outbreak unvaccinated workers are put on unpaid leave until the outbreak is over. This is different. I honestly don't know how the system is going to continue to function if we lose 10 to 15 per cent of our workers. What is going to happen when that bomb goes off?

WF: Is there anything you would like to say in conclusion?

RB: One thing that is very positive is that the community has been tremendously supportive. People offer to put evacuees up in their homes, offer spaces for parking RVs and things like that. When my father was evacuated from his seniors' home in 100 Mile House to another facility and then ended up in hospital after a fall, the Care Aide that had travelled with him and the other residents brought him some of her husband's clothes because he did not have enough. People are doing their best to assist one another.

(WF, Unifor)

This article was published in

September 1, 2021 - No. 77

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08775.HTM

Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca