Ontario, Quebec worry vaccine mandates will impact health care. These hospitals disagree

Three Canadian hospitals with COVID-19 vaccine mandates in place say patient care hasn't diminished, a fear the Ontario and Quebec governments say they have.

Ontario and Quebec won’t impose a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health-care workers in fear it will lead to labour shortages that will damage the health-care system.

However, three Canadian hospitals with vaccine mandates in place for almost two months say otherwise.

Holland Bloorview, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and SickKids all told Global News patient care has not been disrupted since their policies began on Sept. 7.

“At Holland Bloorview, having a mandatory vaccination policy has not impacted our ability to care for our patients at all,” said Julia Hanigsberg, president and CEO of the kids’ rehabilitation hospital in Toronto.

“We haven’t gotten pushback from our team. In fact, for the most part, every health-care worker I’ve spoken to feels safer because they know that their colleagues are vaccinated.”

The declarations come after the Ontario and Quebec governments said on Wednesday they would not make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for health-care workers in their jurisdictions.

Both provinces cited a potential impact in the ability to care for patients, despite Quebec indicating that 97 per cent of health-care workers are vaccinated. While the portion of those unvaccinated appears small overall — 14,000 haven’t received a first dose — about 5,000 of those are considered to be in direct contact with patients. It’s unclear what department or realm of the health-care system those employees work in.

Before Wednesday, Quebec was on track to require inoculation by Nov. 15, but said the loss of unvaccinated staff would have had a “devastating effect on the system.”