Hamilton’s hospitals have been instructing some staff who travelled abroad to return to work immediately instead of self-isolating.

Many hospitals in Ontario were doing the same, advising only staff who were in China, Italy or Iran to self-isolate for 14 days. Those who travelled to other places were told to self-monitor and come to work if they had no symptoms of COVID-19.

Despite the federal government recommending since March 13 that travellers abroad self-isolate upon return, hospitals only adopted that policy five days later on March 18.

“I was actually shocked when I heard that,” said Vicki McKenna, president of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA). “I was alarmed. These people work with people who are sick. We don’t want to make that worse nor do we want them around colleagues. You can’t do social distancing in our jobs.”

McKenna said Ontario nurses were “uneasy and worried” about potentially transmitting novel coronavirus to vulnerable patients.

In fact, Hamilton and Halton’s first case of COVID-19 on March 11 was a radiation oncologist who treated 11 patients and worked with nine staff at Juravinski Cancer Centre before discovering she got COVID-19 during a trip to Hawaii.

The 32-year-old Burlington woman had no symptoms when she arrived at work on Monday, March 9 — long before the self-isolation recommendations. But the case is an example of why nurses were concerned.

Hamilton’s medical officer of health, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, says advice on whether health-care workers should self-isolate has been “going back and forth.”

The concern is potential shortages of workers at time when hospital’s need all hands on deck.

“If you have half the workforce, you are already beat,” Dr. David Russell, interim chief of staff at St. Joseph’s Healthcare said on March 14.

But McKenna says it would be far worse to have health-care workers spreading COVID-19 in hospitals.

“I think the risk is higher that we have people coming back into the country going into our health-care institutions and infecting others,” she said.

The province’s command table put an end to the debate Wednesday, changing its guideline to isolation for 14 days for health-care workers who have travelled abroad.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...