Symptomatic Ottawa hospital workers with COVID-19 may be asked to work in staffing crisis

Ottawa's largest hospitals say they may call in symptomatic health-care workers with COVID-19 to work should their staffing crisis become dire — a policy move that hospitals across the continent are making amid the Omicron surge, say experts.

An internal document by The Ottawa Hospital dated Jan. 5 outlines its decision-making process for when health-care workers are allowed to work should they be exposed to or have COVID-19.

The hospital states that "if exceptionally critical to operations," workers who've tested positive for COVID-19 may be asked to come into work whether they're symptomatic or asymptomatic.

If approved on a case-by-case basis, staff must work under its "work self-isolation" measure, which means they'll have to get tested daily and self-isolate at and outside of work — like eating meals and taking breaks away from colleagues and family, travelling to and from work in a private vehicle or wearing PPE on public transit and staying two metres away from everyone "except when providing direct care."

"Work self isolation is not a staffing option and should only be used as a last resort when there is a clear risk to patient care (i.e. the risk of the staff member not returning outweighs the risk of potentially exposing patients)," says the document. 

Nurses who CBC spoke to expressed concern over this policy, as they could risk infecting vulnerable patients should it become a reality.

"It just goes against everything that we do as nurses," said one nurse at The Ottawa Hospital, who CBC agreed not to name because of their concern their job could be at risk if they speak publicly. 

"Our whole job is to protect the public and we don't get to do that anymore ... we can't safely take care of patients.

"We're just going to show up to work and it's like roulette."

As of last week, hundreds of Ottawa health-care workers were off work as a result of COVID-19 infections or exposure. The hospital said 125 staff are off work because they've tested positive for COVID-19.

"I don't know if I could live with myself if I got someone sick, if it came back that I took care of them, then they got sick, and then they ended up in ICU," said the nurse. "I'm not sure if I would want to be a nurse after that."

They also asked what legal protection will they have should they infect a patient while working.

A spokesperson for The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) said in an email that this decision would only be made in "extreme circumstances" when the risk to the patient by not having health-care workers is greater than the risk of the infected worker exposing them to COVID-19. 

"It is important to note that TOH has not had to bring in any COVID-19 positive staff," the spokesperson said.