Some of Canada’s doctors are feeling high levels of fatigue and anxiety one year into the COVID-19 pandemic according to a survey by the Canadian Medical Association, and concern over the country’s vaccine rollout was listed as one of the main reasons.
The CMA survey, conducted on 1,648 practising physicians who responded between Feb. 18 and 22, found 69 per cent felt an increase in fatigue over the last year, with 65 per cent experiencing anxiety around the pandemic.
Canada’s vaccine rollout stalled through February as shipping delays affected supply of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s products. But the rollout has ramped up in recent weeks as supply has been restored and new vaccines have been approved.
Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician in Burlington, Ont., said she wasn’t surprised to see the high levels of fatigue and anxiety reported among doctors in the CMA survey, given her own experiences and conversations with peers over the last few months.
“If anything I’m surprised it wasn’t higher,” she said.
The survey results were released Wednesday, marking nearly one year since the World Health Organization labelled the COVID-19 crisis a global pandemic on March 11, 2020.
Sixty-two per cent of respondents said concerns about Canada’s vaccine rollout were contributing negatively to their mental health, while increased time with social restrictions (64 per cent) and continued uncertainty about the future (63 per cent) were the other top concerns.
Family physicians have felt additional stress of altering the care they can provide to patients since the pandemic started, Kwan says, and frustration has built recently as they’ve fielded calls and emails from patients about vaccine availability, without many clear answers to give them.
Thirty-nine percent of the CMA survey respondents said the lack of engagement with doctors in administering the vaccines has been one of the key challenges of the rollout. Concerns about vaccine supply topped the list at 93 per cent while not having clear direction on priority groups was also a popular answer (52 per cent).
Ontario announced Wednesday that family doctors in six regions — Toronto, Peel Region, Hamilton, Guelph, Peterborough, and Simcoe-Muskoka — will start administering COVID vaccines to patients aged 60-64 this weekend.
The rollout is expected to open up to more family doctors’ offices as supply grows, something Kwan has been waiting for.
“We want to be able to help our patients, and we know which ones are in need of it,” she said. “But I don’t have access to the vaccines to do that right now.”
CMA President Dr. Ann Collins says family doctors have been underutilized across the country during the rollout. While some physicians have volunteered or been recruited to help administer vaccines at clinics, the lack of immunization being done at their offices has been confounding, she adds.
“They’re in a prime position to talk to their patients about it and then deliver it,” she said.
Canada’s rollout, which began in mid-December, is lagging significantly behind several countries in doses administered per population.
Just over 5.3 per cent of Canadian residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday afternoon.
The recent approval of vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson is expected to allow Canada’s inoculation plan to expand in the coming weeks, however.
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease expert in Mississauga, Ont., says that while the percentage of doctors who reported fatigue and anxiety is alarming, there may be more reason for optimism now than there was last month, when the survey was conducted.
Chakrabarti says he’s noticed a shift among his own colleagues to a “bit more of a positive outlook.”
“We know that mental health is a huge issue in COVID, whether it’s for people in health care or people in the community,” he said. “But what I find interesting is right now, we’re in the best position we’ve been in since the beginning of the pandemic.”
While Chakrabarti acknowledged legitimate concerns with Canada’s rollout, he worries some people may be “disproportionately emphasizing the difficulties compared to the good parts.”
“We’re getting some good news — Johnson & Johnson (being approved), a million doses of vaccines delivered this week,” he said. “But then we’re also hearing the ongoing drumbeat — a third wave is coming, variants are here. That is taking the forefront of the messaging … and it can result in anxiety in health-care professionals and otherwise.”
Collins says the most striking result of the survey was that of the 65 per cent of respondents who reported increased anxiety, only 16 per cent indicated that they had sought help.
“This clearly shows us that we still have some barriers that we need to work on around physician health and wellness,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2020.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
