Sask. health-care workers 'shouldn't have to beg' for vaccines, union says

Only 60 per cent of Phase 1 Saskatchewan health-care workers have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and the head of the union representing thousands of them says it's partly because of failings in the province's vaccine rollout.

"People shouldn't have to beg for this," said Barbara Cape, the president of Service Employees International Union western branch. "Health care workers have been working their tails off. They continue to show up and now they have to beg to get a vaccine."

As of Sunday, 24,181 Phase 1 health-care workers had received their first doses. That group includes staff at private- and publicly run long-term care homes, plus "prioritized" health workers such as those who work in emergency departments, intensive care units, COVID-19 wards and testing centres, according to the Saskatchewan COVID-19 vaccine delivery plan. 

The group's full estimated population is 40,500, making for a 60-per-cent inoculation rate among Phase 1 health-care workers so far.

That's low compared with other priority groups. Seventy-six per cent of seniors aged 80 and over have received their first dose, while 91 per cent of long-term care residents got their first shot. 

The gap has not gone unnoticed. 

Dr. Alex Wong, an infectious diseases specialist and practising physician at Regina General Hospital, wrote on Twitter that, even after accounting for people who can't immediately receive the vaccine because they contracted COVID-19 or those for whom "access to vaccine might not be optimal," the uptake among workers "isn't good at all." 

"We need to understand what the root issues around vaccine hesitancy in SK healthcare workers ASAP and address them thoroughly," Wong wrote. 

"I wonder about mistrust, confusion, lack of clear messaging, etc. I'm really not sure. As a frontline health-care worker, protecting oneself through vaccination is akin to protecting the patients we serve. Let's do better, friends and colleagues. We owe it to #SK citizens to do so."  

Dr. Susan Shaw, the chief medical officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), also writing on Twitter, pointed out that within Phase 1, "Long-term care and personal care home residents and staff, and all over 70, were prioritized."

"Now many phase 1 [health-care workers] are booking and receiving their first doses as doses become available," she wrote.

Though care-home residents, staff and other health workers were prioritized in Phase 1,further priority was placed within that pecking order on long-term and personal care-home residents and staff, Minister of Health Paul Merriman said in an email on Tuesday. 

"A limited amount of vaccine was available and the long-term care home population was experiencing the highest level of serious illness and death," he wrote. 

Logistical challenges cited 

Cape of SEIU West said only about 60 per cent of all Saskatchewan health-care workers were initially included in Phase 1. That has forced the union to file "vaccine interpretation appeals," asking the province to broaden the types of health workers eligible to receive the vaccine during Phase 1.

"I talked with a lab tech over the weekend and she said she's not lined up until April 10. We got her appeal put through three weeks ago," Cape said.  

Workers willing and able to receive shots have faced other logistical hurdles, she says.

"We don't get to just pick up the phone and say, 'Hey, this is Barb, can I line up for my vaccine?'" she said. "They sent out a message to some, but not all, of those who were in Phase 1. And then people had to register to go on to a website to get verification that they're in Phase 1 and then they had to phone in. 

"Those communication issues, those logistical challenges, they are still not resolved."

Cape says that while some workers remain hesitant about vaccines, an estimated 80 per cent of SEIU West members offered the vaccine have taken it. 

"It's less about vaccine hesitancy and more about vaccine access," she said. "They want it. They've seen the ravages better than [anyone]."