As vaccine mandate deadlines are fast approaching all across the country, Canada’s health and long-term care industries are bracing for staff shortages and layoffs, with unions urging federal and provincial governments to soften their hard-line attitude.
A shortage of workers in hospitals and nursing homes would put additional strain on an already overburdened workforce dealing with the pandemic’s hectic work shifts. The uncertainty caused by vaccine mandates emphasises the challenges that the healthcare system is going to face, once the vaccine mandate comes into force.
According to Devon Greyson, an assistant professor of public health at the University of British Columbia, officials are venturing into unfamiliar territories with mass vaccine mandates, and it is unclear how workers will react.
People’s health and well-being may be jeopardised by a labour shortage and it is scary. But the country is in an ethical situation where it is also terrifying, not to ensure that all the health work employees were vaccinated, he added.
Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced one of the world’s strictest vaccine mandates, stating that unvaccinated federal employees will be placed on unpaid leave and that COVID-19 vaccination certificates will be required for domestic air, train, and ship passengers.
If employees in British Columbia’s long-term care and assisted living sector do not receive at least one vaccination by Monday, they will be placed on unpaid administrative leave, health care authorities stated.
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