We stand together to support respect and safety for Ontario’s workers who provide care

The following is a statement from Health Service Providers (HSPs) across Ontario’s Central Region.   It expresses the sentiments of Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH), Couchiching Family Health Team (CFHT), and other local service providers.

We, as leaders in Ontario’s health-care system, recognize every person has been impacted by the pandemic. We thank them for the sacrifices made over the past two years to protect our health-care system and its lifeline, health-care workers.

The pandemic, however, is not over for Ontario’s workers who provide care.

We appreciate the public’s support over the last two years and we are trying to hold strong. We still need that support. Our health-care workforce is depleted and tired. We need to protect this precious resource for the good of all Ontarians to ensure the health-care system is there when the public needs it most – in recovery and rejuvenation.

As the pandemic has evolved, our workforce maintained its commitment to using the best scientific evidence and guidance to keep themselves safe and healthy, so they could continue to provide care for those in need. Hospitals, institutions, doctor’s offices, homes, or wherever health care is provided, must always be places where the best public health guidance is followed.

We all have responsibility to ensure our health-care workers are safe and respected, whether at work, home, or in your local community. As some restrictions are lifted, we recognize that vaccination and masking policies will be necessary in health-care settings to protect us all.

We ask for kindness and to be respectful of each other, and our health-care workers, as we move forward together safely.