Less than half of hospital employees in the region received the flu shot this year, according to a recent public health unit report.
On March 2 Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) board members reviewed a report about flu immunizations over the 2015-16 season.
The report stated 47.9% of employees in area hospitals received the flu vaccine, while 64.5% of staff in retirement homes and 80.9% of staff in long-term care facilities were vaccinated.
“Every year I think I ask the same question, so pardon me, but it just slays me that 47 per cent of the hospital staff (were vaccinated) … some of them are as low as 32 and 34 (per cent),” said board member and Wellington County Warden George Bridge.
“You can’t force the issue but what is the problem? These are health professionals. You’d think that they would understand the need.”
Medical officer of health Dr. Nicola Mercer said hospitals can’t force employees to get immunizations and studies have shown that nurses are less likely to receive the shot than physicians.
Mercer said reasons nurses give for opposing the flu vaccination range from the safety of the vaccine to exercising their choice over what to do with their bodies.
Physicians, on the other hand, often just forget to receive the immunization; it’s not that they’re opposed to it.
“So if you’re standing outside the operating room you could probably get every surgeon that walks through,” Mercer said. “They just want it to be convenient and easy and ‘let me get on with my job.’”
Overall, an average of 68.6% of health care workers across Canada receive flu shots, according to the 2012 adult National Immunization Coverage survey.
With local rates below the national average, WDGPH officials said they plan to continue to target health care workers to increase flu shot coverage.
Mercer said public health teams have approached various institutions to provide education to try to increase immunization rates.
“I think some of the things that were more effective … is that when hospitals began to say ‘you’re not immunized, you’re on my casual pool or my part time pool I can’t bring you in, you can’t work because I’m looking for an immunized staff,’” Mercer said.
“Those are things that actually do modify and change behaviour.”
The immunization rates for hospital employees in Wellington County include:
– 60.6% at Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus;
– 78.6% at Louise Marshal Hospital in Mount Forest; and
– 82.2% at Palmerston and District Hospital.
WDGPH distributed 77,808 doses of influenza vaccine for the general public to health care providers (including physician offices and pharmacies) between October and December 2015.
Public health is in the process of collecting the unused vaccine and does not yet know how much was wasted.
For a full list of immunization rates in area hospitals, long-term care facilities and retirement residences, visit wdgpublichealth.ca.
