The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is warning that the federal public health agency’s guidelines to protect front-line health-care workers from outbreaks of diseases like the novel coronavirus don’t go far enough, and might be putting them and patients at risk.
The standards, which the Public Health Agency of Canada updated last week, lay out the precautions health-care workers should take when assessing and treating a patient with a possible case of the coronavirus, including what protective equipment should be used.
The public health agency has committed to updating the guidelines as they learn more about the disease the World Health Organization has named COVID-19, which has sickened more than 64,000 people worldwide.
Linda Silas, president of the labour organization, says the safety protocols are inadequate compared to those in Ontario and some other countries.
Silas said the standards assume the coronavirus can’t spread through the air — rather than through droplets — but she contends the science isn’t settled on that front and the government should be taking greater care until they can be 100 per cent sure.
“When we do not know, we have to go for the best precautions for workers,” said Silas.
Nurses, doctors and other medical staff who come into contact with patients must be protected, not only for their own health but to stop the potential spread of the virus, she said.
“We need to make it clear that if health care workers are not safe, then patients are not safe,” said Silas, who has written to federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu about her concerns.
The Ontario government released its own guidelines calling for constant use of disposable respirators when interacting with a potential coronavirus patient, while the federal guidelines require only a surgical mask unless certain medical procedures are being done.
The federal protocols are in line with the World Health Organization, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and its European counterpart have also recommended higher standards and a greater degree of precaution.
“In Canada the protection is much lower, and we will not accept that,” Silas said.
She recommends all health care workers, regardless of where they are, follow the CDC or Ontario standards rather than the federal ones.
Other provinces are still developing their own protocols to respond to a potential coronavirus outbreak in Canada while others, like Manitoba, have opted to rely on the federal recommendations, leaving some health-care providers more protected than others, Silas said.
Theresa Tam, chief public health officer at the Public Health Agency of Canada, said on Saturday there are eight people in Canada who have tested positive for the virus, following news on Friday that a new case was discovered in British Columbia.
There have been three cases in Ontario and five in B.C., pending confirmation of the latest case by a laboratory.
The Public Health Agency of Canada was created in the wake of the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Mario Possamai, the former senior adviser on occupational health and safety matters for the SARS Commission, a judicial inquiry into how Ontario handled the deadly outbreak, said the federal public health agency is failing to learn from the experience of the province.
Nearly half of the 247 cases in Ontario affected nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, cleaners or other front-line workers.
“The SARS outbreak was 17 years ago, and I can’t believe they haven’t learned,” he said.
The final report of the SARS inquiry described a tale of two cities — Vancouver and Toronto — with afflicted patients arriving at hospital within hours of one another.
The Vancouver patient was put into isolation within two-and-a-half hours of being admitted and treated by health-care professionals with respiratory protection.
In contrast, a similar patient in Toronto wasn’t isolated for 21 hours, and doctors wouldn’t start wearing respirators for weeks.
The report concluded that the procedures in place helped to save British Columbia from a major outbreak, while Ontario was thrown into a full public health crisis.
Millions of dollars have been dispatched by governments around the world so global researchers can answer some of the lingering questions about the coronavirus, but until the science is settled lives could be saved by preparing for the worst-case scenario, Possamai said.
“That’s why I’m so passionate about this, and so concerned,” he said.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
