Let the Health Minister and hospital CEOs know you support universal masking with respirators in Ottawa’s hospitals
Easily send or customize a letter to let them know you want hospitals in Ottawa to mandate the use of respirators in all hospital areas. You can use your own email software to send the letter.
Why take action? In 2023, there have been 129 COVID-19 outbreaks at Ottawa’s hospitals so far, leading to 20 deaths and 1,027 known cases of COVID-19 (as of December 13, 2023). Outbreaks have occurred in the Ottawa Hospital, the Queensway Carleton Hospital, Hôpital Montfort, the Saint-Vincent Hospital, and the Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital. Ottawa is a hotspot for COVID-19 now — there has been a dramatic surge in the wastewater viral signal since July (an increase of 2,069%, as of December 7).
Please take a moment to voice your support for universal masking with respirators in Ottawa’s hospitals
- Make sure your email application is active (e.g. Thunderbird or Outlook).
- Click the button below. It will create an email using the message template, with email addresses for Ontario’s Minister of Health, Ottawa Public Health, and your local hospital CEOs.
- Add email addresses for your local Members of Provincial Parliament.
- Customize your email. Add your name and email address, and modify the wording of the message if you like.
- Click send!
Create an email using the message template!
To:
List of contacts
- Cameron Love, President and CEO, The Ottawa Hospital, Cameron.Love@toh.ca
- Alex Munter, President and Chief Executive Officer, CHEO, amunter@cheo.on.ca
- The Queensway Carleton Hospital, patientrelations@qch.on.ca
- L’Hôpital Montfort, montfort@montfort.on.ca
Cc:
- Sylvia Jones, Ontario Minister of Health, sylvia.jones@ontario.ca
- Vera Etches, Ottawa Public Health, Vera.Etches@ottawa.ca
- Councillor Catherine Kitts, Chair, Board of Health, Catherine.Kitts@ottawa.ca
- Marit Stiles, Leader of the NDP, MStiles-QP@ndp.on.ca
- France Gélinas, Critic, Health, fgelinas-qp@ndp.on.ca
- John Fraser, Interim leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, jfraser.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
- Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Ontario Greens, mschreiner@ola.org
- Joel Harden, MPP Ottawa Centre, JHarden-CO@ndp.on.ca
Subject: We need universal masking with N95 respirators
Message template:
Ontario hospitals should be the leaders in preventing the spread of SARS-2. The health of both your staff and patients is at stake. By upgrading to N95s, FFP3s, elastomeric and PAPRs, your hospital could dramatically reduce nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 infections among staff and patients[1] and help to address the projected illness-related increase in staff absences and in SARS-2 complications this fall 2023.[2] As noted in the Forecast Report “Protecting the Workforce & Corporate Productivity: Preparing employers for the Fall 2023 contagious illness season to anticipate likely workforce disruptions” by biorisk expert Conor Browne (p. 6):
“The majority of adults infected with COVID-19 during this period will be suffering their third SARS-CoV-2 infection. This will significantly elevate risks and rates of LC [Long COVID], since multiple infections is an established risk factor for its development. In general, widespread staff absences combined with personnel working at less than full productivity from increasingly common conditions like brain fog will adversely affect productivity across the board.”
We can learn from Ontario’s experience dealing with SARS-1. It is now recognized that hospitals should not have dropped requirements for N95 respirators during the SARS-1 pandemic, as it only helped to fuel a further wave of infections.[3]
As a healthcare organization, you are accountable for decisions that can endanger the health of vulnerable citizens – or help protect them. We believe that everyone has the right to access healthcare safely, without being exposed to a Level 3 biohazard. Making respirators mandatory is a clear path to reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections and their impacts on those already seeking care for other conditions.
I kindly request that you take my concerns into account and initiate the instatement of mandatory respirator usage in all areas of your facilities. Doing so will protect the health and safety of healthcare workers and patients and also demonstrate your commitment to evidence-based practices and community well-being.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
[Your name and email address]
[2] Raisonance. “Protecting the Workforce & Corporate Productivity: Preparing employers for the Fall 2023 contagious illness season to anticipate likely workforce disruptions” at p. 9. https://assets.raisonance.ai/WorkforceRiskReport_Fall-2023_FINAL.pdf.
[3] Low DE.”SARS: Lessons from Toronto.” In: Institute of Medicine (US) Forum on Microbial Threats; Knobler S, Mahmoud A, Lemon S, et al., editors. Learning from SARS: Preparing for the Next Disease Outbreak: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92467/.