Health care workers are refusing to wear masks
Posted January 3, 2013 10:15 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – If you’ve visited a clinic or a hospital recently, you may have noticed few, if any, health care workers are wearing masks.
A policy launched last year stipulates that workers in BC need to wear a mask if they have chosen not to get a flu shot.
Provincial Medical Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall admits that of the 25 per cent of workers who have refused to get a flu shot, it seems none are wearing the protective facial gear.
But he doesn’t call the new policy a failure. “Well, I’d like to emphasize or focus on the 75 per cent of the health care workers who have been vaccinated as a result of the policy, which is double the number in previous years. So I think it is a success.”
And why aren’t doctors, nurses and hospital employees wearing masks?
“We have heard back from health care workers who feel being made to wear a mask is a punitive measure because it is uncomfortable or that it interferes with their ability to interact with patients,” explains Kendall.
Kendall himself introduced the new policy in the fall, but the province later decided that there would be no punitive measures for non-compliance in the first year.
He says meetings will get underway this month to figure out how to get more workers to comply.
