Response to Premier’s Letter on Health Care Worker Vaccination

The Hon. Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1

RE: Response to Premier’s Letter on Health Care Worker Vaccination

Dear Premier Ford,

As three leading children’s hospitals in Ontario, and in partnership with our provincial partner paediatric healthcare providers, we have advocated strongly throughout the pandemic that children be placed at the forefront of policy decision making. Our top priority continues to be the safety of the children, youth and families we serve, and our healthcare worker teams.

In response to your request for input on vaccine mandates in hospitals, we endorse the feedback you have received from the Ontario Hospital Association. When Directive 6 was released, SickKids, CHEO and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospitals were among the first hospitals to go beyond the government vaccination directive. We did so recognizing, understanding, and planning to mitigate for the potential Health Human Resource implications.

Since the start of the pandemic, our focus has been to ensure the safety of our patients – children who are ill, immunocompromised and/or with physical and developmental disabilities. We have adopted rigorous safety practices and universal vaccination is one more layer of bundled measure to protect children, families, and our healthcare worker teams. It will be some time before most children below the age of 11 will be fully vaccinated. Our decision to enact a universal approach was made in consultation with Dr. Kieran Moore, who recognized that “…some organizations, where a vast majority of patients are not currently eligible to be vaccinated, will need to go beyond the minimum standard set by our directive. We support SickKids, CHEO, Holland Bloorview and others in taking these necessary measures to protect patient, family and staff safety.”

Mandatory vaccination is the best way to keep our patients, their families and very dedicated and highly specialized healthcare workers safe. Furthermore, we strongly believe that vaccine mandates create a safe environment for all and will in fact prevent further human resource challenges. Across the three hospitals, over 98% of our 13,775 staff are vaccinated. Most of those who have chosen to remain unvaccinated are part-time and casual staff who often work for multiple healthcare organizations. A total of 13 full-time nurses across our three organizations have not yet chosen to be vaccinated.

Health Human Resource pressures have been persistent for well over a decade and are the result of many complex factors including that Ontario entered the pandemic with the lowest ratio of acute care hospital beds in the developed world, and wage restraints that were put in place prior to the current crisis. Addressing the Health Human Resource challenges will require a concerted and thoughtful long-term plan.

We have a duty to our patients and families to ensure that they are being cared for in as safe an environment as possible, by vaccinated staff. We will continue to go beyond the current government directive and are best positioned to plan and deliver highly specialized paediatric care accordingly.

Sincerely,

Alex Munter
President and Chief Executive Officer
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Dr. Ronald Cohn
President and CEO,
The Hospital for Sick Children

Julia Hanigsberg
President and CEO,
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital