Vaccination rates rising among Hamilton LTC staff as deadlines — and potential discipline — looms

Despite some workers facing discipline for remaining unvaccinated, staff immunization rates at Hamilton long-term-care homes appear to be improving overall.

Updated data from the Ministry of Long-Term Care shows that by Sept. 30 the average vaccination rate for Hamilton LTC staff increased to 89.8 per cent, compared to 84.2 per cent by Aug. 31.

The data is from before the ministry announced mandatory vaccinations on Oct. 1, though some facilities had already introduced their own vaccination rules. The ministry confirmed in an email that the September data shows an overall increase in the total number of staff that have received one or both doses of vaccine relative to the August data."

Homes must report the number of staff, students and volunteers working in the home each month and how many of them are partially or fully vaccinated, or unvaccinated.

Blackadar Continuing Care Centre, an Extendicare home in Dundas, had the highest rate in all of Hamilton's long-term-care homes. According to the ministry, 100 per cent of staff got their first dose and 98 per cent had their second by Sept. 30.

Extendicare required workers to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 12. A statement attributed to Blackadar administrator Joel Pennant said, We are proud to say all staff working in our home participated in our vaccination program, and no one was placed on unpaid leave."

Unifor Local 504's vice-president, who works at Blackadar, confirmed their last worker got vaccinated about a month ago. Cindy Hasler said she warned her colleagues early that resisting vaccination wasn't worth it.

Being in the union, I see that there's no way you could fight this," said the personal support worker, noting it could take more than a year to get the issue to arbitration.

So you're going to lose a year and a half of not working before you even get it to arbitration, and then you could still lose," she said.

The lowest vaccination rate in Hamilton was at Heritage Green Nursing Home, which had only 74 per cent of workers fully vaccinated, according to the ministry. If the numbers didn't rise since then, it could mean one in four of the home's workers will be out of a job after Nov. 15.

The home didn't respond to requests for comment Friday. A union spokesperson said they had no updated vaccination numbers or information on why workers weren't vaccinated. But in an August release, the union, SEIU Healthcare, said a vast majority" of their 60,000 health workers Ontario-wide supported mandatory vaccination.

Grace Villa on the east Mountain, which previously had the lowest rate among the city's LTCs, had 91 per cent of staff with one dose and 86 per cent with both, as of the latest data. But in an email Friday, the CEO of the home's operator said 91 per cent now had both doses.

We have a small number of staff who will not be complying with the directive who will be off work as of the deadline," Mary Raithby of APANS Health Services said in an email, referring to the ministry's Nov. 15 deadline. We are actively working to replace this small group."

Hamilton Continuing Care, which is run by Schlegel Villages, has a vaccination deadline of Oct. 31. Per ministry data, 95 per cent of workers had one dose and 83 per cent had both. A Schlegel spokesperson said Friday that only two of the home's 81 active" workers have not yet had one dose and will be on unpaid leave from Nov. 1. One of the workers has a medical exemption under review, said Kristian Partington.

As for staffing, there is no concern at all with team member numbers at Hamilton Continuing Care as a result of this policy," he added in an email.

St. Joseph's Villa had 87 per cent partially vaccinated staff and 84 per cent with two doses, according to the ministry. But in an email, president John Woods said the overall rate" is now 95 per cent. It's not clear if that number includes staff who have only one dose.

The facility has contingency plans in place for staffing," Woods said. It's hard work for the team of course because there are shortages of health care staff in general."

Maria Iqbal is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator covering aging Reach her via email: miqbal@thespec.com