# 3530
Mandating that HCW’s (Health Care Workers) get an annual flu shot has sparked a contentious debate over the past several years, with individual rights to choose whether to be vaccinated colliding with infection control concerns in hospitals, clinics, and ambulances.
It is a subject that has been covered in this blog a number of times, including:
NY: Considering Mandating Flu Vaccinations For HCWs
BJC: Mandatory Flu Shots For HCWs
UK: Unvaccinated Health Care Workers Spread Flu
Ongoing Debate: Mandatory Flu Shots For Health Care Workers?
Tonight we get word, via the CANWEST News Service, that there are no plans to force Canadian HCWs to take the Swine flu vaccine when it becomes available later this fall.
Health agency won't force flu shots on health-care workers
By Andrew Mayeda and Sharon Kirkey, Canwest News Service
July 22, 2009 6:01 PM
- The Public Health Agency of Canada has no plan to deal with front-line health-care workers who refuse to be vaccinated against swine flu, a scenario that some infectious-disease experts believe could accelerate the spread of the flu pandemic in the coming months.
OTTAWA — The Public Health Agency of Canada has no plan to deal with front-line health-care workers who refuse to be vaccinated against swine flu, a scenario that some infectious-disease experts believe could accelerate the spread of the flu pandemic in the coming months.
The question of whether doctors and nurses should be forced to take flu vaccines has long been a contentious issue in the public-health community. In 2002, the Ontario government withdrew legislation that made it mandatory for paramedics to get flu shots, after the paramedics' union launched a legal challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Canadian Medical Association, which represents tens of thousands of doctors nationwide, will introduce a resolution at its annual meeting next month that encourages physicians to get the swine-flu vaccine, which is expected to be ready in the fall. But the association will stop short of endorsing mandatory vaccinations, said CMA president Dr. Robert Ouellet.
"We think there should be informed consent," Ouellet said in an interview. "Everyone should have the right to refuse a vaccination if they think it's not right for them."
