On May 7,  Premier John Horgan and Health Minister Adrian Dix presented a public briefing that was short on details about how shortages and chronic challenges in recruitment and retention of health science professionals will be addressed in the plan.

HSA has been advocating for several weeks that the plan must include all  members of the healthcare team, including specialized health science professionals.

See HSA's letter to the Ministry of Health on re-opening non urgent/emergent surgeries, screening, and testing here.

The government's May 7 plan is available here. 

Follow the same advice that public health officials recommend for the cold and flu season: 

• wash your hands often with soap and water, and avoid touching your face
• cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing
• avoid others who are unwell
• stay home when you are sick. If you see a health care provider, be sure to contact them ahead of time so you can be assessed safely 

• Pregnant employees who are concerned about exposure should discuss with their employer options to be redeployed to an area where risk of exposure is minimal. Your employer must ensure adequate personal protective measures are in place.
• If you require an accommodation because of your pregnancy status, the regular procedure is to be followed: contact your supervisor to accommodate you, including allowing you to work from home if possible. We are working with employers to expedite the process for accommodation in these cases.

• Coverage rules have changed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic
• The HBT team is working closely with Pacific Blue Cross to ensure employees have accessto Tele-Health and Virtual services to support ongoing care during COVID-19 social distancing initiatives.

NEW FOR EMPLOYEES: Reimbursement for Tele-Physiotherapy and Tele-Chiropractic Treatment

• Reimbursement is available to ALL employees who receive benefits:
• Tele-Physiotherapy and Tele-Chiropractic treatments are now available to ensure the continuance of care during COVID-19 social distancing requirements.
• Reimbursement for these Tele-Health treatments will apply from March 24, 2020 until June 24, 2020.
• The COVID-19 social distancing requirement will be monitored on an ongoing basis.
• Reimbursement will be provided for subsequent visits only and practitioners must work in alignment with PBC requirements as well as their Professional College guidelines
• For more information,please visit: https://www.pac.bluecross.ca/covid19/

Ongoing Tele-Health and Virtual Services available to employees for reimbursement

• Reimbursement is available to ALL employees who receive benefits:
• Registered Counselling
• Psychological Services
• Naturopathic Services
• Prescription Medication Home Delivery
• TheseTele-Health and Virtual Services will continue post-COVID-19
• For more information,please visit: https://www.pac.bluecross.ca/covid19/

The following Digital Mental Health Therapy for COVID-19 anxiety is available to all employees

• Available to ALL employees at no cost and at any time: https://info.starlingminds.com/covid19-free-mental-health

COVID-19 Resource App

• For a central resource for accessing personalized, trusted, evidence-based information about COVID-19, the following COVID-19 BC Support App is available to you in partnership with the BC Ministry of Health: https://www.thrive.health/covid19-app

Psychological Services 

The BC Psychological Association is offering free support services for health care and other essential workers who are experiencing stress, anxiety, or uncertainty due to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. This service can supplement the services covered by the extended health benefits you are entitled to under your collective agreement. See the resource here. 

• April 1 - See the OHS guidelines and frequently asked questions from  community social services workers here 
• Follow the same advice that public health officials recommend for the cold and flu season:
• wash your hands often with soap and water, and avoid touching your face
• cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing
• avoid others who are unwell
• stay home when you are sick. If you see a health care provider, be sure to contact them ahead of time so you can be assessed safely 

Health Minister Adrian Dix reported March 31 that more than 500 health science professionals had stepped up to help in the pandemic by offering to re-register and to support the public health system's fight against COVID-19. Thank you!!

Contact your professional association or regulating college. They are working with public health officials to establish an expedited re-registration process to facilitate bringing support to our health care team.

• For physical therapists, see the college link here.
• For social workers: If you are a registrant in good standing in the Full (RSW) or Clinical (RCSW) class who is not already currently supporting the COVID-19 pandemic and would be able to assist with the health care system capacity in a paid position, please email the College at office.coordinator@bccsw.ca. Please write “Emergency Social Worker for COVID-19” in the subject line and include your full name and registration number in the body of the email. If you have forgotten your registration number, you can search it by clicking ‘Verify a Registrant’ on the College website www.bccsw.ca

Once you have reinstated your membership, contact your local facility’s human resources department and advise them you are available to be hired back to work during the pandemic. 

The following 19 hospitals have been designated as primary COVID-19 facilities to deliver care to the most critically ill patients: 

• Fraser Health region:
• Abbotsford Regional Hospital
• Royal Columbian Hospital
• Surrey Memorial Hospital
• Interior Health region:
• Kelowna General Hospital
• Royal Inland Hospital
• Vernon Jubilee Hospital
• Penticton Regional Hospital
• Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital
• East Kootenay Regional Hospital
• Island Health region:
• Royal Jubilee Hospital
• Nanaimo Regional General Hospital
• Victoria General Hospital (secondary site)
• Northern Health:
• University Hospital of Northern British Columbia
• Mills Memorial Hospital
• Fort St. John Hospital
• Provincial Health Services Authority:
• BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals
• Vancouver Coastal Health/Providence Health Care:
• Lions Gate Hospital
• Richmond Hospital
• St. Paul’s Hospital
• Vancouver General Hospital 

Fatigue is considered an impairment if it affects your ability to safely perform assigned work. In such a situation, you must inform your supervisor of the impairment and must not knowingly do work where the impairment may create an undue risk to you or anyone else. OHS Regulation 4.19/4.20 : A worker must not be assigned to activities where a reported or observed impairment may create an undue risk to the worker or anyone else. 

• Call 8-1-1, your primary care provider, or public health office
• If you are instructed by a primary care provider to self-isolate, make sure you inform your employer, and you will be placed on paid general leave. This is separate from your sick bank, and will not affect your other leave banks (i.e, vacation, special leave, etc.)
• Link: BC Centre for Disease Control  guidelines on self-isolation 
• If you are a casual employee, you will be placed on a general leave of absence and compensated for any accepted shifts that were canceled because of the self-isolation requirement by a primary care provider.
• Employees are not required to get a sick note from a physician.
• Contact your HSA steward or a staff labour relations officer if you have concerns about how your time is being coded if you are self-isolated
• Health care worker testing sites are available. Contact your health authority for information on testing
• For more information, see the link: VCH/Providence Health Care  

1) Try to redeploy you to avoid direct patient care or otherwise minimize risk of exposure
2) Arrange for you to work from home where possible

• If neither of those is possible, you may be placed on sick leave.
• HSA is working with employers to streamline processes to allow for accommodations and appropriate leaves. 

• In an effort to slow the transmission of COVID-19 in BC’s hard-hit Long Term Care facilities, BC’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, issued two province-wide orders aimed at restricting movement of health care staff between Long Term Care facilities. The orders went into effect y sterday, Thursday March 26, 2020
• HSA is working with other unions and employers daily to establish protocols and procedures to assist members to comply with the orders, and to protect your collective agreement rights.
• Check back frequently for updated information.
• See the March 27 information bulletin to members here. 

• The Public Health Officer has given health care and social services employers the right to determine whether or not staff members are essential to the delivery of services.
• HSA members play a vital role on the providing caring, professional, and excellent service to patients and clients.   During a time of crisis in which the public requires access to these services, employers continue to deem our members essential.
• HSA members may be redeployed under the employer’s redeployment policies during this time if they are not required in their usual unit, department, program, or location.
• Members who are redeployed should be qualified and trained to perform duties without putting workers at risk as a result of changes to work duties. 
• In all circumstances, when you are at work, the employer is responsible for ensuring that your workplace is safe while providing these services. 
• See the list of essential workers  developed by Emergency Management BC in consultation with other government ministries and the Provincial Health OfficerProvincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry 

• See the link:  Public Health Agency advice for Returning Travellers
• If you have recently returned from travel to an area where there has been a COVID-19 outbreak and public health officials have issued a travel advisory for self-isolation, self-isolate and advise your employer, and you will be placed on a paid general leave of absence. As of March 15, 2020, travel advisories for self isolation are in place for people returning from Hubei province in China, Iran, and Italy.
• If you are returning from travel outside Canada, and are asymptomatic, contact your employer to determine if you must self-isolate before returning to work. Your employer will determine if you are considered essential, as per the March 15 letter to health care workers from the BC Chief Medical Officer. 
• **Health care workers providing direct patient care returning from outside the country may be exempt from the general self isolation directive but will be required to self-monitor their health status. This exemption does not apply to travel from Hubei Province in China, Iran or Italy. Health care workers returning from these areas will be directed to self-isolate for 14 days. 
• See Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry's March 13 letter providing this direction for health care workers  
  
• If you have travelled to an area not designated a COVID 19 affected region, are asymptomatic but believe you may have been exposed to COVID 19, contact 8-1-1 or your primary care provider and self-isolate if so directed. Contact your employer, and you will be placed on paid general leave while in self-isolation and awaiting further direction from your primary care provider.
• You should continue to self-monitor, and if you develop any flu-like symptoms, contact your primary care provider or 8-1-1. If you are instructed to self-isolate while awaiting testing, contact your employer, and you will be place on paid leave. 

• See the April 3 Memo to Stewards: Grievance Alert: Inappropriate leave banks and staff redeployment
• If you are instructed by a primary care provider to self-isolate, make sure you inform your employer, and you will be placed on paid general leave. This will not affect your other leave banks.
• If you are a casual employee, you will be placed on a general leave of absence and compensated for any accepted shifts that were canceled because of the self-isolation requirement by a primary care provider.
• If you contract COVID-19, you will be placed on sick leave until such time as a primary care provider clears you for return to work.
• Contact your HSA steward or a staff labour relations officer if you have concerns about how your time is being coded if you are self-isolated.
• **Members who choose to travel outside of Canada after the March 12, 2020 direction of the Provincial Medical Health Officer to restrict travel, and to self-isolate for 14 days upon return, are not covered by general leave provisions for the 14-day self-isolation period. Travel after March 12 is a personal decision you would be taking against the advice and direction of public health officials. You may want to check with your travel insurer what their position is on this situation.

The agreement was in effect until May 5, 2020.

Effective May 5, the grievance procedure has reverted to the timelines and processes agreed to under the collective agreements effective immediately. Grievances that were put on hold are now activated, unless revised timelines are negotiated by mutual consent.

If you have a grievance in process and have questions, please contact your steward or LRO for details.

• May 6 Memo to HSPBA and CBA Stewards re grievance timelines

For members covered by the Community Social Serices Collective Agreement, the grievance timeline waiver has been extended to May 16.  This means that, if you have a grievance filed and in process, you will not hear about any stages in the process taking place for the period of the temporary agreement. 

• We have always known that the critical services and supports you provide to our most vulnerable members of BritishColumbia are "essential", and, under the Government's orders you have now been legally defined as essential to the functioning of our society in this pandemic.
• The work you do has been determined to be critical to the functioning of the Province and the Government has ordered that the agencies that deliver these services and support must remain open, wherever possible. Employers must still comply with all orders of the Provincial Health Officer and with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

See the links: 

• Bulletin to HSA members working in community social services 
• OHS guidelines and frequently asked questions from  community social services workers  

CSSBA and CSSEA have reached agreement to waive timelines for Employer responses to grievances.  The waiver applies to all stages of the grievance process.  This means that, if you have a grievance filed and in process, you will not hear about any stages in the process taking place for the period of the temporary agreement.  The agreement is in effect until May 16, 2020. 

Program funding is guaranteed to May 31, 2020.  

The provincial government has reinforced its funding commitment to the social services sector in light of potential disruptions caused by COVID-19 to May 31, 2020.

In follow-up to PSEC Secretariat’s direction to public sector employers in March that employment continuity be maintained until the end of April, it provided updated staffing and service delivery principles post April 30. In a letter addressed to employers’ associations CEOs, PSEC Secretariat provided guiding principles that employers should consider post-April when making decisions on business continuity; specifically, that they should do so in consultation with funders, in compliance with Provincial Health Officer and WorkSafeBC guidance, and in collaboration with unions. This follows the Ministry of Children & Family Development and the Ministry of Social Development & Poverty Reduction’s recent statements that contracted service providers are able to receive incremental funding to cover increased costs due to staff shortages, increased overtime, etc. for an extended period of time, from April 30, 2020 to May 31, 2020.

• See the link: Government commits to continue community social services program funding 

• If you are sick, stay home on sick leave. You are not required to get a sick note from a physician. Link: The mandatory CSS Early Intervention program will still apply. 
• If you are directed by a primary care provider to self-isolate either because you have returned to Canada from international travel or have or believe you have been exposed to COVID-19, you will be placed on a paid leave of absence (not sick leave) for the duration of the isolation period.
• If you choose to travel after March 13, 2020, you are not entitled to a paid leave of absensce for the required self-isolation period.
• CSSEA is not accepting vacation bookings in order to ensure there is staffing to meet needs. Consult with your employer for already booked vacation. If there is sufficient staffing, booked vacation should not be denied. 

• Interior Health : https://news.interiorhealth.ca/covid-19/
• Vancouver Coastal Health: http://www.vch.ca/about-us/news/vancouver-coastal-health-statement-on-coronavirus
• Island Health: https://www.islandhealth.ca/
• Northern Health: https://www.northernhealth.ca/
• Fraser Health: https://www.fraserhealth.ca/employees/clinical-resources/coronavirus-information/fraser-health-employee-information#.XnU5pYhKhnI
• PHSA: http://www.phsa.ca/staff-resources/covid-19-resources-for-staff
• Providence: http://covid19.providencehealthcare.org/