Heed our warnings, nurses plead
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KEVIN DONOVAN (TS)
The public inquiry into Ontario's SARS crisis begins today with a call for
whistle-blower protection and a stronger voice for nurses.
"Nurses' voices can never be ignored. We cannot afford another tragedy,"
said Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association
of Ontario.
Grinspun, one of the first speakers scheduled for this morning's session,
plans to tell Mr. Justice Archie Campbell that nurses sounded various alarms
throughout the SARS crisis that were not heeded by hospitals.
She wants a protocol put in place so nurses, the front-line workers who deal
continually with patients, can get concerns about the spread of disease to
the right place at the right time.
"We need open channels and no penalties for talking," Grinspun said.
She added that nurses sometimes fear raising alarms to avoid getting in the
bad books of hospital staff.
In the case of North York General Hospital, where the second phase of SARS
festered for seven weeks earlier this year, nurses have told the Star they
continually told doctors the disease was back, but their words went
unheeded.
In an interview, Grinspun said she also wants to tell Campbell "to leave no
stone unturned" in his investigation of how public health departments,
hospitals and the provincial government handled the crisis that killed 44
people, including two nurses, and made 375 people sick.
The disease, which originated in Asia, appeared in Greater Toronto in March.
A second phase returned in May.
The SARS commission was created in June by the Ontario government.
Much of its work will be behind closed doors, but three days of public
hearings will be held this week - today through Wednesday - with more
hearings in November.
No relatives of victims who died will be speaking to the inquiry this week.
Commission staff say this week they are bringing to the public the "broader
picture" of the crisis, with more specific, detailed investigations to
follow.
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