By: Gregory Staley
Written On: 2021-10-07
Just reading the headlines of many articles these days could tell you what ought to be obvious to you – qualified healthcare workers are losing their jobs over the vaccine mandate. It shouldn’t have to be spelt out for Canadians but this is the equivalent of a cut to our healthcare system by our government and it could be very dangerous.
I’m sure that Canadians wouldn’t support a politician that ran on a platform of cutting our healthcare system but apparently, they will support it (or at least passively allow it) if the justification is that those qualified medical professionals are not vaccinated. Who would’ve guessed that Canadians would think it’s ok to fire medical staff in a system already overburdened due to lack of staffing!
Article: *Opinion* Overrun hospitals are not a Covid issue – the problem is not new
For instance, CTV News reported that dozens of unvaccinated Windsor, Ont. hospital employees were terminated because of COVID-19 vaccine policies. CP24 reported that the University Health Network that serves Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret will terminate employees who do not get vaccinated by the end of October. The hospital network said that it had connected with more than 900 staff members who either didn’t provide their vaccination status or had indicated that they aren’t vaccinated.
But it doesn’t stop there! Kingston’s research and teaching hospital placed 136 employees on two-week, unpaid leave for not complying with the hospital’s COVID-19 vaccination policy. More recently, a news release came out that indicated that Windsor Regional Hospital has “fired 57 employees who failed to get vaccinated against COVID-19.”
32 of those individuals who were fired were clinical staff, while 25 of them were non-clinical. Let us just ask the obvious question here – how does this help our hospital system? Isn’t this the equivalent of a cut on our healthcare system? Won’t this make COVID-19 worse as hospital staff become even more overburdened and overworked? Won’t this lead to even less beds being available due to staffing shortages? How does this help Canadians?
The short answer is that It doesn’t. Do you know what else doesn’t help Canadians? Letting go of paramedics that are desperately needed. However, that’s precisely what has happened in Windsor-Essex according to CUPE 2974, the union that represents the paramedics of Windsor-Essex. On their Twitter account, the Union put out a tweet on October the 5th that said Windsor-Essex EMS had down-staffed ambulances after 18 paramedics were placed on unpaid leave. The union says that the community is “being placed at risk due to “one size fits all” policies that lack rational application.” They added that “this isn’t the solution.”
I agree. It isn’t and will never be a good solution to fire qualified medical staff during a “dire” fourth wave – it’s the equivalent of a healthcare cut. Yesterday’s heroes are today’s zero’s – so long and farewell says the government.
Diverge Media is an independent Canadian media outlet dedicated to bringing you the stories that matter. We don’t receive government contributions for our work and therefore rely entirely on the generous donation/purchases of readers and viewers to help us continue our work. We know times are hard and we thank each and everyone who supports our work financially, as well as those who share our work with others. Thank you! Check out our merch store for hats and tees and leave a donation if you can!
Photo by Luis Melendez on Unsplash
You must log in to post a comment.