Wife of man in Fergus long-term care home wants vaccines to be mandatory for staff

A woman whose husband is in a long-term care home in Fergus says she's upset that some workers in the home have not received the COVID-19 vaccine and that the home is still experiencing outbreaks.

Anita Pickett says vaccinating the people who live in the home has reduced the risk that people will get seriously ill or die from the disease, but outbreaks among staff members result in residents being confined to their rooms and unable to visit with family members such as herself, even though she's designated an essential caregiver. 

"They cannot have a bath because they can't go out of the room," Pickett said. 

Provincial regulations require long-term care facilities to declare an outbreak if even one resident or staff member tests positive for the virus. 

Approximately 50 per cent of the staff of Caressant Care Fergus, the home where Pickett's husband lives, have received the vaccine, according to a spokesperson for Caressant Care.

Pickett thinks all employees of long-term care facilities should be required to get the vaccine, she said.

Ministry of Health encourages vaccination

Asked if it intended to issue such a mandate, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care did not provide a response. 

Rather, he told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo in an email that the ministry encourages staff to get the vaccine and is working to address vaccine hesitancy through initiatives such as its COVID-19 vaccine promotion toolkit. 

Vaccinating people does not eliminate the risk of an outbreak, said Stuart Oakley, the communications and marketing manager for Caressant Care because it is still possible for people who have been vaccinated to test positive for the virus. 

There is also a risk of false positives on COVID-19 tests, Oakley noted.

The company considered mandating vaccines for all staff, Oakley said, going so far as to discuss the matter with its legal council. 

Staffing concerns

But the home has chosen not to require staff to get the vaccine and to respect individual employees' choices, he said.

"They still have to adhere to, you know, all of the protocols," he said, "So the infection control practices, the hand hygiene, you know? All of those things are in place, whether you're vaccinated or you're not."

Asked whether the decision not to require vaccination of staff members derived from a concern about staffing shortages in long-term care, Oakley said it was a consideration.

Any policy that results in people being sent home from work makes it harder to fill positions in the home and increases its reliance on third-party staffing agencies, he said.

"Just because [staff are] not vaccinated doesn't mean they can't do their work or can't do their job," he said. "Because if you're in the home, you have to wear PPE, and you have to follow all the protocols anyway. So there's no benefit to sending somebody home simply because they're not vaccinated."

Oakley acknowledged that outbreaks can result in residents being stuck in their rooms and being unable to have baths, but they do receive assistance to bathe in their rooms, he said.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has documented three COVID-19 outbreaks at Caressant Care Fergus since the start of the pandemic, according to its website.  None of those outbreaks spread beyond a single person and nobody died as a result.

The most recent outbreak lasted from Feb. 6 to Feb. 23.

'Ethical and moral responsibility'

Dr. Nicola Mercer, the medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, listened to Pickett talk about the impact the outbreaks have while on CBC K-W's The Morning Edition Tuesday.

"You can hear the emotion in her voice, the impact when people don't get vaccinated," Mercer said. "I think it's our ethical and moral responsibility as health-care providers to protect the people that we work for. And it does raise questions about whether there's any legal liability if you're not protecting the people that you work for."

Mercer said public health has seen it before where health-care workers won't get the flu vaccine.

"It is surprising that, with the COVID vaccine all that we know about the long-term, serious outcomes [of the virus] that some are declining," she said.

She said initially, some homes were seeing between 50 to 70 per cent of staff were not getting the vaccine, but that's decreased and approximately 65 per cent of workers in long-term care or retirement homes have received at least their first dose of the vaccine.

Mercer said some people may have been hesitant early on because they didn't want to be guinea pigs, but hopefully now people are seeing the benefits vaccines are having for people around the globe and they'll get their shot. She said any health-care workers in her communities who haven't received the shot yet just need to flag the fact that they work in health-care when they pre-register and public health will get them in as quickly as possible.

"The bottom line is the vaccines work and they will protect other people," she said.

Listen to the full interview with Dr. Nicola Mercer: