158 hospital workers in Waterloo region could be fired for not having COVID-19 shots

Hospitals in Waterloo region say they expect to fire up to 158 people Tuesday for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

The terminations would represent about two per cent of the three hospitals' over 7,900 employees, which means the overwhelming majority of workers chose to get vaccinated, hospital officials said. 

"Although we had hoped that all staff would choose vaccination, it is a personal decision and [we] respect their choice," St. Mary's General Hospital president Lee Fairclough said in a release Tuesday.

The breakdown of staff not following the vaccine mandate are as follows: 

Staff not following the vaccine policy were placed on unpaid leave on Oct. 12.

St. Mary's General Hospital said the staff had their employment terminated as of Tuesday.

Grand River Hospital said the employment status of unvaccinated employees will now "be reviewed." Similarly, at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, a spokesperson said "meetings have been scheduled to review their employment status."

Clinical services at Cambridge Memorial Hospital should not the affected by the terminations, CEO Patrick Gaskin said Monday. 

He said the majority of employees who had been on unpaid level were part-time or casual workers. 

"None of our medical professional staff, none of our midwives are in that group — all of them are fully vaccinated," he said.

Listen | Cambridge Memorial Hospital president and CEO Patrick Gaskin on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition talks about what the hospital system is like right now and what it's expecting to see in the coming months with flu season ahead.

A spokesperson for St. Mary's General also said they have "implemented strategies to limit any potential impact" on patients.

At Grand River Hospital, a spokesperson said, "there may be some short-term slow down of service in very few areas."

"We have reverted back to accommodating our historical patient volumes instead of the increased volumes we were accommodating [during the pandemic]. We have actions in place to increase our capacity, beyond our historical patient volumes, by end of the fiscal year at the latest," the spokesperson said.