Stratford surgeon unvaccinated, soon to be unemployed

Stratford, Ont. -

Dr. Alanna Fitzpatrick is one of 16 healthcare workers within the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA) who will lose their jobs next week because they have yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

“It was a gut-wrenching decision knowing the potential consequences,” Fitzpatrick tells CTV News.

In order to keep their jobs, HPHA, encompassing hospitals in Stratford, Seaforth, St.Marys, and Clinton, has made it mandatory for the 1,400 healthcare workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Fitzpatrick is one of two HPHA physicians still unvaccinated. She’s pro-vaccine, but says personal health issues, that wouldn’t qualify for a medical exemption, are keeping her from getting the shot. She said she believes daily testing and extra precautions should be enough for her to keep her job.

“Is it truly free and informed consent if your job is on the line? If you’re potentially losing your livelihood or you’re not able to provide for your family? A lot of people are wondering if that invalidates the time-tested medical principle of free and informed consent,” she said.

The head of the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance, Andrew Williams, stands by his hospital network’s stance of mandatory vaccination.

“We will always respect individual rights, but as an organization, we have responsibilities and that responsibility in the context of COVID, is to ensure a safe environment, and the way to ensure that, is to have your team vaccinated,” he said. “It’s one layer of protection, but a very, very important one, that from our perspective is necessary to continue to say to the community that this is a safe place to come and get the care you need.”

As one of only two plastic and reconstructive surgeons in the four-hospital network, Fitzpatrick worries about her patients, especially in the fields she specializes, trauma and cancer care.

“There’s one procedure in particular that no one in my community or London is accepting referrals for, because their wait times are already astronomical. So those patients, I’m actually referring to the Greater Toronto Area. So, it’s going to have significant impacts on patient care, wait times and the amount they have to drive for services,” she said.

Williams says the HPHA is working to mitigate the impact of any vaccine-related job losses on patients. Still, Fitzpatrick and 13 other healthcare workers in the four-hospital network, currently on unpaid administrative leave, have until Nov. 12 to change their minds and get vaccinated, or be fired.

“I am very hopeful in March, the government has been talking about lifting some of these directives. I’m hoping they lift Directive 6 (mandating vaccine policies for health care settings) as well, which would mean that I could return to work, at my hospital,” said Fitzpatrick.

Until then, she’ll likely be unemployed, for being unvaccinated.