EDMONTON- Influenza is hitting Albertans hard this season. By mid-January there were over 1,100 confirmed cases of the flu in our province. Over 450 of those cases were here in Edmonton.
But when an outbreak hits a health care facility, Alberta Health Services (AHS) has a policy its employees must follow, and it's proven to be somewhat controversial.
"First and foremost, patient safety is paramount and we take any steps that we can to help ensure that the health of our patients is protected," explained Dr. Chris Sikora, a Medical Officer of Health with AHS. "When there's an influenza outbreak in a facility, we take immediate measures to help protect the health of our patients."
Those measures include identifying those who have not been immunized, including health care employees. Employee immunization is not mandatory under AHS' policy however, there are rules all health care workers must follow.
"They can have an anti-viral medication called oseltamivir, which is publicly funded, it's free, it's paid for by Alberta Health. They take that for the time period necessary, as prescribed by our usual outbreak management guidelines and they can return to work," explained Sikora. "If they refuse the immunization, if they refuse the post-exposure medication, the management may try to get them into a work environment where they won't provide extra risks to anybody. If that's not possible, then we can exclude them from work."
Sikora says the procedure is purely for the health and safety of patients.
The President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) says the union did challenge the policy when it was brought in 10 years ago but, the challenge was unsuccessful.
"An arbitrator ruled that AHS or the employer has the right to do this, and it wasn't a decision we liked, but it's one we lived by," explained Guy Smith.
Smith says the choice to be immunized is a very personal one, and ultimately the decision is up to each individual employee.
"When it comes down to it, getting a vaccination or being forced to get a vaccination is actually quite an invasion of your own personal privacy," said Smith. "Our advice is that (employees) choose one of those options, follow the directive. They have the right to file an individual grievance at that point if they've lost pay, or if they've had to use some of their banked time, we can try and get that back."
Sikora says anywhere between 20 to 50 percent of health care workers in Edmonton have been immunized this season, depending on the ward or facility. The influenza vaccination has been available for employees since November.
With files from Shane Jones, Global News.
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2013.