In hopes of driving up immunization rates among BC health care workers, the Government of British Columbia is imposing strict flu-season requirements on workers who come into contact with patients at publicly-funded health care facilities or in the community. Starting with the upcoming flu season, applicable health care workers (including health-authority staff, physicians and residents, volunteers, students, contractors and vendors) will be required to either obtain a seasonal influenza vaccine or to generally don a mask at all times during the flu season.
B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall, who recommended these measures to the Provincial Government, wrote that less than 50 percent of health care workers are immunized against influenza each year, despite being in contact with high risk populations such as seniors, pregnant women, young children, and the immuno-compromised. Citing evidence from long-term care facilities that health care worker vaccinations results in diminished illness and fewer deaths each flu season, the physician argued that "[g]etting the flu shot should be considered standard patient safety practice for all health-care workers who come into contact with patients – as important as following effective hand hygiene practices, staying home when ill or wearing a mask in the operating room." British Columbia will be the first jurisdiction in Canada to implement such a policy.
According to media outlets, the unions representing health care workers are generally supportive of vaccinations, although the British Columbia Nurses Union has said it will not yet formally respond to the directive and has rather referred to its October 2011 Press Release on the issue where it stated that vaccinations should be promoted through education, rather than through a punitive approach by the employer.
A Government of British Columbia "Backgrounder", cites influenza as causing the most deaths among vaccine-preventable diseases.
According to Dr. Kendall, in U.S. jurisdictions where similar requirements have been imposed, health care worker immunizations levels have reached approximately 95 percent.
The Government's Press Release, Dr. Kendall's Opinion Editorial and the BCNU Press Release on Influenza vaccinations can be accessed at:
https://www.bcnu.org/News/news.aspx?page=Bulletins_Oct 21, 2011
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