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The Ontario Nurses’ Association is seeking a pair of court orders to force senior care homes to provide staff access to personal protective equipment after the facilities reportedly restricted and even denied staff access to it in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association, which represents 68,000 health care workers in the province, asserts in its court filings that its members who work in certain nursing homes are “actively dissuaded” from using personal protective equipment (PPE) that have become necessities during the pandemic. The association has filed for court orders to force facilities to allow nurses and other health care workers to use the PPE that they believe is necessary to avoid contracting and spreading the illness. The association also contends that proper containment of the virus is not occurring, with residents who have been tested for COVID-19 permitted to access common areas with other residents, such as dining halls.
The association is seeking a court order against operators of a London, Ontario based home, Henley Place, and Rykka Care Centres Group, which are the operators of three nursing homes.
The filing for the court order against Rykka Care Centres includes an affidavit from the labour relations officer for the association. He says that the association has been inundated with questions and concerns raised by members about their safety.
“These members are terrified, and fear that simply attending at Eatonville for their assigned shifts will place them at an imminent risk of harm, up to and including death,” notes the officer in his affidavit, including one email from a member that reads:
“This is not right. I don’t wish to be another casualty. Do not say a surgical mask will protect me against a lethal illness that has killed so many, including the young. I have worth as a human and I can’t let the government decide my fate because of shortages of supplies. I have things I want to live for.”
The Ontario Nurses’ Association points out that those that work in nursing homes are at significant risk of contracting COVID-19 from residents. Senior care facilities have been a hotbed for the illness, with residents who are among the most susceptible to catching the virus. In addition, the association points out that residents, because of their conditions, end up coughing, sneezing, and spitting on staff.
“[R]esidents have difficulty swallowing food and medication and frequently choke or spit up their food or engage in erratic behaviour such as spitting and biting,” states the filing.
Despite these conditions, nurses and other staff report that their access to PPE has been restricted and even denied. The association alleged in its court filing that one nurse reported that she was forced to treat a patient with coronavirus without an N95 respirator at the behest of her employer.
“The employer did not allow this member to use her clinical judgment to ascertain the appropriate level of personal protective equipment that was required [f]or this resident. Instead, they determined on her behalf that a surgical mask would suffice,” another labor relations officer for the association wrote in her affidavit.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association claims that the problems at these facilities are ongoing and they have made repeated requests for PPE supplies to be adequately available to health care workers. These requests, alleges the association in their court filing, were denied.
“This is extremely problematic because the residents at Henley Place are vulnerable elderly residents with increasingly acute medical problems, including dementia and multiple co-morbidities,” argues the filing asking for the court to mandate supplies be provided by the care homes. “Every resident requires close hands-on care.”
The medical officer for the Middlesex-London Health Unit told CTV News reporters that all nursing homes should have adequate PPE supplies.
“We did a preliminary risk assessment last week and we are doing a more detailed risk assessment of each long-term care and retirement home this week. And the same protocols are in place across the province really the ministry is very direct at this point. They are very clear what the expectations are in terms of staffing and personal protective equipment,” the officer told reporters.
The allegations made by the Ontario Nurses’ Association have yet to be proven in court, but a hearing has been held.
For its part, a lawyer representing the nursing home facilities told the court at the hearing that distributing PPE when it is “not warranted” could lead to shortages.
“The traditional sources for PPE and N95 masks have largely dried up,” said the homes’ lawyer arguing that reports from health care workers about being denied PPE are misunderstandings. Health care workers being provided only a limited number of N95 masks at the beginning of a shift “was simply an inventory control measure,” said the lawyer. Staff could have requested more at any time.
Lawyers representing the association contend that coronavirus is spreading like “wildfire” at these facilities.
“This case is not just about N95s,” said the association’s lawyer at the hearing. “It is about a number of provisions of infection control.”
In a seniors’ home class action lawsuit filed in Quebec, the lead plaintiff claims his mother and other residents died and contracted the illness after operators of CISSS de Laval forced nurses to continue to work at the CHSLD Saint-Dorothée facility even after showing symptoms of the virus. According to CBC, 164 cases of coronavirus were reported at the seniors’ home and 67 residents reportedly died after contracting COVID-19.
Are you a health care worker? Has your access to PPE been restricted during the coronavirus pandemic? Tell us your story in the comment section below!
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