Ontario is cracking down again on mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirements. This time it is the Long-Term Care (LTC) sector as the province has unveiled a new list of mandatory vaccination rules that will apply to in-home staff, support workers, students, and volunteers by Nov. 15, 2021.
This will apply to all long-term home workers unless a staff member has a valid medical exemption. Rod Phillips, the Minister of Long-Term Care, announced Friday this will also mean expanded inspections of LTC homes and redirecting provincial resources to enhance and audit existing testing in homes.
The crackdown has brought statements of approval from two of the largest associations representing the long-term care sector in Ontario; one being the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) and the other being AdvantAge Ontario, which is the organization that represents not-for-profit homes across the province.
“We are extremely relieved that government is taking this action to mandate vaccines for all LTC staff. Our Association has been urgently calling for this as the most critical step in protecting residents, especially with the rise of the Delta Variant," said Lisa Levin, CEO of AdvantAge Ontario.
Levin said LTC members have been working extremely hard to increase their staff vaccination rates, but this mandatory requirement was the missing piece to support their efforts.
"With this policy in place, not-for-profit homes – which are often stand-alone homes run either by a volunteer board, or in the case of municipal homes, by local officials – no longer have to assume the legal risk of introducing mandatory vaccinations," she said.
Levin also said that the next step for Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Chrstine Elliott is to extend this mandatory vaccination requirement to workers in all health care settings.
"All Ontarians deserve to be protected and our long-term care sector, which has been struggling to retain staff all throughout the pandemic, cannot risk losing much-needed staff to other health care settings where vaccinations are not required," she said.
Similar sentiments came from Donna Duncan, CEO of the OLTCA.
“The Ontario Long Term Care Association, representing 70 per cent of the province’s long-term care homes, welcomes today’s announcement by the Ontario Government mandating COVID-19 vaccines for staff, volunteers, students and support workers in long-term care," said Duncan.
She added it was a vital health and safety measure, not just for the LTC sector but also for the communities that support long-term care.
Duncan added that by extending this mandate across the health care system it will help to ensure the existing health human resources crisis will not be worsened by staff moving out of LTC positions into other jobs elsewhere.
Duncan also said the OLTCA group will move quickly to get the new policy put in place quickly in member homes.
"Vaccines are safe and effective, and their uptake across society is critical to ending this devastating COVID-19 pandemic. Residents, their families and staff, volunteers, students and support workers themselves deserve certainty around their safety while receiving or supporting someone with care," said Duncan.
