Saskatchewan gets flak for 'wrongheaded decision' to redeploy healthcare workers to COVID hotspots

Physicians and nurses in Saskatchewan are pushing back against a provincial government order to send them out to COVID-19 hotspots amid staffing shortages and a resurgence of infections, with a new record of 506 cases set on Tuesday. Healthcare workers already suffering from stress and burnout could face added pressure from redeployment, said Dr. James Stempien, an emergency physician and head of ER at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. “Our emergency nurses and physicians are very resilient people, so for them to make that decision to go help an area that needed extra staffing, they would do the best they could,” he was quoted in a CTV News report. “But sure you can imagine there would be a stress involved.” Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, called the province’s order a “wrongheaded decision.” “We can't just have a partial state of emergency that only affects how workers are moved around in the province—we need that vaccine passport government wide,” she said. “They need to support that and they need to institute it, and we need the mandatory masking in indoor public places.” Read: Public health campaigns can be ruined by the personal conduct of politicians Saskatchewan also needs to limit the number of people gathering, reassess the acceptable size of COVID bubbles as well as how often people go out. Zambory points to what’s happening in Alberta as an example of what Saskatchewan needs to avoid. “Their numbers are so horrific that they've reached capacity in the system,” she said. “The last thing that any health care provider wants to do, any registered nurse wants to do, is have to decide who gets care and who doesn't. We can't have this in this province.” An agreement between the Saskatchewan Health Authority and health sector unions allowing for labour mobility expired when the province lifted COVID restrictions in July. “The government is not keeping up their end of the bargain, but instead is taking heavy handed action against those very health care workers who are telling us they're feeling demoralized and disrespected,” said NDP labour critic Carla Beck. “It's another case of where the government is failing to do the things that they can do to bring the numbers under control.” The redeployment order also comes at a time when protesters across Canada are targeting hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. Dr. Stempien called the protest “ridiculous” but said he’s seen several unvaccinated people change their views after getting sick with COVID-19. “The most people I see, when they're in the emergency department and quite unwell and are appreciative of the care they're getting, have a bit of buyers’ regret for not getting the vaccine,” he said. Read: Vaccine hesitancy highest in Alberta, racialized groups at rollout's start: survey

Saskatchewan gets flak for 'wrongheaded decision' to redeploy healthcare workers to COVID hotspots

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics