Wingham District Hospital is one of the many regional hospitals forced recently to temporarily close its emergency department.
John Schwartzentruber
Huron County
The fire in the eyes of Sarah White (name changed) matched the intensity in her voice as she described the turmoil ripping through her hospital as the COVID-19 jab-or-job mandate extended its icy tentacles. Co-workers and supervisors alike at times breaking down in tears, faced with a rending decision. Many had taken a rightful stand, only to be worn down by the coercive vaccination orders. The threats morphed into a dark reality: careers of doctors, nurses and technicians were in jeopardy. Deeply agitated, Sarah told of how a doctor yelled in frustration when he learned that she would no longer be at his side handing him instruments: “DON’T DO THIS TO ME!”
How many times did this real-life scene replay in Ontario’s hospitals over the past three years?
Sarah, a highly qualified and experienced young surgical nurse, was physically escorted out of her hospital for refusing to be coerced by hospital administration policy. Thousands of Ontario healthcare workers were terminated for the same reason, an action which appears to be in violation of the Nuremberg Code which states that “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.”
“Lots of job openings in Alberta,” they said. So, after long deliberation, Sarah and her husband headed west, crossing the Alberta line on May 1st. They were torn between leaving behind their roots and family ties and pursuing a future in their respective careers.
There was retraining to do, Alberta nursing permits to secure and job interviews. They had to find housing, uncertain where they would end up working.
That stress was relatively short-lived. Sarah messaged in early June saying that she had accepted a position in a large Edmonton hospital that wanted her skill set. Sarah will be wearing Alberta Health Services scrubs for a job she learned, loved but left behind – not by choice – in Ontario.
Sarah’s situation is not unique. She’s merely one in the exodus of Ontario healthcare workers heading west. A contact at Alberta Health Services stated “…you would not believe the amount of nurses transferring from Ontario.” Most have moved there since Alberta Health Services revoked their COVID jab policy one year ago on July 18, 2022.
This exodus has Ontario healthcare scrambling desperately to fill the chasm left by the non-scientific, punitive administrative action against thousands of medical professionals and related workers. It’s difficult to determine the actual numbers of workers who were fired or left, because the official figures offered by health care administrators are considerably lower than those given by former employees. These ex-workers are well-positioned to attest to the true numbers based on their firsthand knowledge of co-worker losses resulting from vaccination policy.
Can it get worse? The remaining, overworked medical staff is being strained to the breaking point. With a totally unjustified twinge of guilt, one nurse quietly confided that she had taken stress leave to preserve her health. Another described a growing sense of despair among nursing staff. Yet another nurse from a high-acuity position in a city hospital shared that during her off-duty hours she is seized with panic attacks, wondering if she had completed a critical task at work, or did it get sidetracked by an even greater need?
While some have flatly declared that they will quit their job before cooperating with renewed jab mandates, others simply cannot. One young nurse, a single mother, said, “I didn’t have the luxury of having convictions.”
Is this burden humanly sustainable? Why are these dedicated, care-giving professionals made to suffer so unbearably by callous, administrative actions?
Is Ontario’s healthcare system teetering on the brink of a catastrophic implosion, propelled by administrative policy?
The options are limited for replacing those skilled professionals forced out by Ontario health networks’ administrative decisions. A whiff of desperation emanates from the minutes of the February 2023 Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance directors meeting. Their recruitment strategy includes this less-than-reassuring statement: “Hiring for potential rather than based on experience.”
Do the administrators believe that no nurse, or an inexperienced nurse, is better than a proven medical professional who believes she may choose what goes into her body?
Medical services are being cut. “Emergency Department Closed” signs loom increasingly in front of hospitals. Will it stop there? Local sources tell of “head-hunters” openly soliciting medical staff in smaller healthcare centers. As medical staff is being lured into larger centers to keep those facilities operational, what does this shortfall imply for the future of the small-town hospital?
As other provinces move past their former COVID-19 mandates, it raises the obvious question: Why are Ontario healthcare services still enforcing an ideological, administrative policy which bars skilled nurses from practicing?
No hospital bed, no date for your surgery? Call it an administrative decision. The responsibility lands at the top. There’s an emergency in Ontario healthcare and the crash isn’t an accident.
John Schwartzentruber is a Huron County farmer.
