The head of the province’s nurses union says members are angry after almost 100 healthcare workers were made to self isolate due to possible exposure to COVID-19 at the Health Sciences Centre.
Debbie Forward says members raised concerns about the unit to which the latest COVID patient was moved, however, those concerns went unheeded.
140 to 150 nurses are potentially affected according to Forward, and members are worried about the fallout as those healthcare workers went home to family over the three days of the possible exposure.
She doesn’t believe everything was done to ensure workers’ safety.
(Photo by Banej via Creative Commons..)
She says in this case, they know the proper protection was not available, as there was minimal staff with access to the right PPE to provide care to the patient before they went back to the ICU. Forward states her members are demanding better, and they are very angry with their employer.
Forward wants to see processes improved as they can’t afford to have that many people out of the system. Nurses are meeting with Eastern Health today to review the new protocols.
