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Index January 15, 2007
Workers Compensation Boards Are Not Doing Their Job in Regulating Safety In Canadian Hospitals:CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti reports on "THE CURRENT" - January 15, 2007Listen (requires RealPlayer - download Basic RealPlayer free) A CBC investigation has revealed that not only are health care workers facing an ever increasing threat of violence but the agencies responsible for regulating safety in hospitals are not doing their job. In 2005, 73,000 nurses working in direct patient care in hospitals or long-term care facilities reported they had been physically assaulted by a patient, according to Statistics Canada. That amounts to 30 per cent of hospital nurses and 50 per cent of long-term care facility nurses. And CBC's investigation showed that if you're involved in the health care industry, you're 6 to 12 times more likely to file a claim for Worker's Compensation for violence than employees from any other industrial sector. Gary Symons is part of the CBC's investigative team working on this story and he joined us from our studio in Kelowna BC … a province where statistics show one in every three nurses was assaulted in 2005. EXCERPTS: SYMONS - "We have good reason to believe that (violent incidents) are actually being underreported by 50% . . . we see the same thing in hospitals right across the country . . . there were other cases including an armed robbery with a knife where no report was given to the Occupational Health and Safety Committee." NURSES UNION - ". . . Workers Compensation has done nothing in follow-up . . . they are not supporting the worker, basically, and they are not following through on a lot of the investigations or any of the orders that are written and there are definitely no fines being issued . . . nurses have just lost faith in the workers compensation board here in British Columbia. They no longer feel it represents their interests at all. . . . nurses do not feel safe . . . it's only going to be a matter of time until somebody is killed." SYMONS - "Governments are not looking at the root causes of this trend . . . the drastic overcrowding we're seeing in many Canadian hospitals." Back to Article Index |