Scott Sharp used to be an active father of four, jogging, playing rugby and coaching sports — in his own words, a jock. But now he walks using a walker or cane and lives with chronic pain and depression.
That's because of what happened Jan. 2, 2015, when he was working the late shift as a personal support worker (PSW) in the emergency room at Guelph General Hospital.
He had been asked to help restrain an aggressive patient. High on crystal meth, the man punched Sharp in the face, causing him to fall and his head to go through a steel rack and into the wall.
Suffering from spinal damage, Sharp underwent surgery and spent three months in hospital.
Because both he and his RN wife, who works at another medical facility, are technically part-time workers, even though they put in full-time hours, they don't have benefits.
With costs associated with Sharp's injury, including medications, piling up, the couple lost their home.
The injured worker is touring the province with the Canadian Union of Public Employees' (CUPE) hospital division, the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), speaking out about the violence against health-care workers.
“When you get behind a wheel and you're intoxicated, there's consequences, but if I'm intoxicated and go into the ER, I can punch a nurse in the face, and there is none,” Sharp said.
“The man who did this to me was not charged. The police said 'We're not going to take it to the Crown. Why bother? He's a patient.' This happens all to often, and it has to stop.”
OCHU recently polled 1,976 members working in seven Ontario communities, including Sudbury, earlier this fall.
Ontario-wide, 68 per cent of registered practical nurses (RPNs) and PSWs said they had experienced at least one incident of physical violence in the hospital in the past year.
That number is slightly higher among workers polled at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, at 69 per cent.
The poll also showed that province-wide, 42 per cent report having experienced at least one incident in the past year of sexual assault or harassment and 44 per cent are afraid of reprisal if they speak about the issue of violence.
“This is a huge problem,” said OCHU president Michael Hurley.
“When 69 per cent of the staff in direct care capacities in Sudbury that we talked to report that they've been physically assaulted once in the year, you've got an environment that begs for a change. That's why we're here today.”
Hurley said he's asking for a number of changes from the provincial and federal governments, and from hospitals themselves.
He said he wants the province to make investments in things like higher staffing levels, flagging systems for violent patients and physical infrastructure, such as plexiglass barriers, to protect workers.
OCHU had a conference call about the poll with the Ministry of Health on Monday, and Hurley said he's hopeful some headway will soon be made.
The federal government has recently made it a more serious offence to assault a transit worker, and Hurley said it would be helpful if the same thing were done for health-care workers.
In terms of hospitals, Hurley said he realizes they're underfunded, but said they're still in a position to say they won't tolerate violence, and push for charges when someone is assaulted.
Contract talks between the OCHU, representing 27,000 hospital staff who are members of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) began in June, but have since broken off.
One of the major issues at the bargaining table was the violence issue.
“We weren't able to make any headway on the issue of violence,” Hurley said. “To make that happen, we have taken a break from the bargaining for now.”
Hurley was also in Sudbury in September speaking about hospital violence, and at the time, we reached out to both Health Sciences North and the OHA for a response.
Health Sciences North said in a written statement that it believes all workers should have a safe work experience.
“We’ve taken steps to help ensure the health and safety of our employees including public education and staff training. We also are working with the OHA as they perform data collection on workplace violence in hospitals across Ontario.”
The Ontario Hospital Association said in its own written statement that the health and safety of employees is a priority.
“While we know that the work performed by health-care providers is often challenging and demanding, acts of violence are never accepted as something that staff members should expect to face within the workplace,” the OHA said.
