Ontario Establishes Safety Team for Health Care Workers
Ontario is creating a new permanently funded team of specialists to help improve workplace safety of health care workers in Ontario.
The 17 new health care specialists will improve enforcement of occupational health and safety regulations in health care workplaces for the more than 480,000 workers in Ontario’s hospitals, long-term care homes, doctors’ offices, medical laboratories and other health care workplaces.
The new team will:
* Help enforce compliance with health and safety legislation in health care sector workplaces.
* Ensure health care providers are better prepared for emergencies, including outbreaks of infectious diseases.
* Support a committee of sector representatives who advise the Minister on occupational health and safety matters.
* Assist employers and employees in health care and all other sectors to prevent occupational diseases.
"Our health care workers work valiantly day and night to protect us," said Labour Minister Peter Fonseca. "In return, we owe it to them to protect them to the best of our ability. Health care workplaces have unique hazards in addition to those typically found in industry."