ST. JOHN'S. N.L. — Health-care workers in Newfoundland and Labrador have been instructed not to throw out N95 protective face masks once they’ve been used — a move that may herald possible sterilization and reuse of the normally single-use gear down the road.
Health Canada is expected to provide guidelines as early as Tuesday, Health Minister John Haggie said Monday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already approved a method of sterilizing and reusing the masks, also known as respirators.
“The memo that was sent out to workers across the province on the weekend about collecting masks caused a great deal of anxiety within our membership,” Debbie Forward, head of the Registered Nurses Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, told The Telegram earlier on Monday, “because this is something new, it’s not something they’ve ever heard of before. The masks are meant to be disposable.”
Forward said the nurses association and other health care unions have weekly discussions with Department of Health officials, and are open to all options.
However, she said, “we will not support any process or any decision that is not safe for our members.”
The union also asked last week about shifting more of the control for safety decisions to the frontline staff, who have the training to understand the risks.
“We’ve been advocating for letting the frontline worker, be it a registered nurse, or nurse practitioner or other health-care provider, do their point-of-care assessment, their risk assessment, on what is the risk of this patient in terms of COVID-19 and making their professional decision based on their judgment and knowledge around what level of mask should be worn.”
The health minister has admitted the search for sufficient personal protective gear (PPE) in case of a surge in COVID-19 cases has been a daily grind for weeks as sources dry up or turn out to be bogus.
On Monday, he said a supply of 94,000 masks was expected to arrive from Hamilton, Ont., this week.
“We’re in as good a position in terms of size and demand as many other jurisdictions in Canada, and we aim to keep it that way," he said.
Forward said she asked for a meeting late last week on PPE decisions, noting that Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have all agreed to place more decision-making power on the front lines.
“So we believe our members and frontline workers here should be protected just as well as workers in other parts of the country.”
Haggie said guidelines were already put in place last week and that all parties were in agreement.
Meanwhile, Forward confirmed that about 15-20 nurses have already refused to do tasks related to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases and their decisions are being adjudicated by Occupation Health and Safety committees.
At least some of these involved public-health nurses providing care or testing in the community.
Peter Jackson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering health for The Telegram.
