October 20th, 2020
October 20th, 2020
QUEEN’S PARK - St Joseph’s Health Centre has been asking for personal protective equipment (PPE) for months, but the Ford government continues to refuse to provide the PPE urgently needed to keep seniors, residents and staff safe during Ontario’s second wave of COVID-19, said MPPs France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) and Jamie West (Sudbury) during question period Tuesday.
Gélinas told the minister of health that instead of helping St. Joseph’s during the crisis, this government has set up obstacles, as evidenced by a two-page letter Ontario Health North sent to St. Joseph’s on Fri. Oct. 16, 2020.
“It spells out the long list of hoops health care workers and long-term care management have to jump through in order to, maybe, gain access to N95 masks or any respirators,” said Gélinas. “What Ontario Health North calls, 'A scarce and critical resource’.”
According to Directive #5 from the Chief Medical Officer of Health, “If in proximity to a suspect or confirmed COVID patient, workers must be given an N95 or better on request.”
“All of this should be embarrassing to this government, and they should be taking action," said Gélinas. "Yet this government continues to deny St. Joseph’s the protective equipment they need."
On Sept. 22, the minister of health said about St. Joseph’s, "they have the PPE they require, including N95s, it’s a fact,” in response to Gélinas' question on behalf of St. Joseph's about why the health providers were having so much trouble accessing PPE.
West said that the Ford government is ignoring the health and safety of workers at St. Joseph’s, who are primarily women, and called on Ford to provide them the PPE they need now during this pandemic.
“Like many people in Sudbury, I come from a career in mining. Before the election, I spent 17 years representing mining health and safety concerns – and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said West. “If a miner or surface plant worker needs a respirator, in order to work safely, they get it. If they don’t, the job would stop.
“But when it comes to long-term care, the workers at St. Joseph’s have been working with their employer to get the PPE they need, for months. They won’t refuse to work, because they know that a work refusal in long-term care would mean leaving someone’s parent, sister or husband in need.
“Why is the minister ignoring these workers? When will they have the N95 masks they need?”