Vitalit accused of silencing doctors, controlling public message amid COVID-19

The Vitalit Health Network is being accused of silencing doctors and controlling the public message under the reign of outgoing president and CEO Gilles Lanteigne.

The criticisms by a former health manager and former board member come after the regional health authority issued a retraction statement last week on behalf of adoctorwho had voiced concerns about the prevention and control protocols on the COVID-19 unit at the Campbellton Regional Hospital.

"We must admit that for appearances, it is as if we had forced her to retract,"said retired Dr. Louis-Marie Simard, the former president and chief executive officer of the former Beausjour Health Authority, which pre-dated Vitalit.

"If that's what has been done, twisting your armis certainly not a good management practice," he said.

"As far as I can remember, what I preach is what I did ...I don't think anyone in the organization had fears that the administration was going to slap them on the wrist if he spoke."

Last Thursday, Dr. Vona MacMillan,a family physician based in Charlo, 30 kilometres east of Campbellton, told Radio-Canadashe was a "little nervous" starting on the COVID-19 unit at the Campbellton hospital after 10 staff had tested positive for the respiratory disease.

She had called on Vitalit to allow staff to wear N95 masks while treating COVID-positive patients, regardless of the procedure being performed.

By4:20 p.m. on Friday, Vitalit released a statement saying MacMillan "wishes" to retract her comments and apologize.

In Simard'sview, such control of the public message is dangerousfor democracy andfor patient confidence in the health-care system.

"Suppose people know that a doctor can be threatened and [forced] to retract. When I go to the doctor in his office, I have a condition that could have a public impact, and I see that my doctor is telling me a story and does not seem comfortable, can I trust him?" he said.

"Health is a personal system. When I speak to a health-care professional, I have to feel 100 per centconfident that he is trying to do the best hecan for my case."

Public health must be transparent

Simard acknowledges certain laws must frame the right to speak. "I have the right to speak, but I don't have the right to lie and I don't have the right to reveal intimate or private information, there is a framework."

But he also noted Vitalitis dependent on the Departmentof Health, financed with public funds.

"When we talk about a health service, it is a public service, paid for by the public and managed by the public, so it must be transparent."

Lanteigne defended himself, saying there was no muzzling in MacMillan's case. She is the one who decided to retract her statement, he said.

Can anybody speak to the media? Of course they can speak.- Gilles Lanteigne, Vitalit president and CEO

"She decided that after consideration to recognize that the standards and the procedures as established by Canadian Public Health and the New Brunswick Public Health are appropriate, that the patients are secure and that there is enough equipment in the Restigouche, and that she would follow the guidelines and the policies and procedures of Vitalit Health Network,"he told reporters during the question period of Vitalit'sannual general meeting Tuesday afternoon.

MacMillan"has decided to do that on her own. She's an adult. She had decided to speak."

Lanteigne said Vitalit like most organizations does have a policy on who can speak on behalf of the organization.

But it considers its roughly7,400 physicians and medical staff as "ambassadors."

"Can anybody speak to the media? Of course they can speak. They're doing it as [a] private citizen," he said.

"When we have someone who works for us, there is an obligation on both sides that we respect and that we expect everybody to conform to their code of policy and their ethical framework that guides their professions," he added.

'We weren't allowed to speak to the media'

Norma McGraw, who resigned in February as vice-chair of the Vitalit Health Network's board of directors in protest over health reform plans, said she's not surprised to hear about MacMillan'scase.

"We weren't allowed to speak to the media, that's for sure ... We weren't allowed to go and ask employees questions to find out how they were, how the services were. These are things we were not supposed to do," she said, adding she believes information control was exercised within senior management to ensure the delivery of a consistent message.

McGraw said she regrets, however, that a doctor who expressedlegitimate fears appears to have been silenced.

"This doctor, if she transgressed the communication channels, it is because she felt preoccupied ...It is a cry of alarm. Has it been listened to? I imagine not, otherwise there would not have been the" retraction."

Three front-line care-givers who have worked on the COVID-19 unit told CBC News lastweek that they didn't feel safe under current personal protective equipmentprotocols, especially one thatallows theuse of N95 masks only forprocedures that produce airborne droplets.

Masks, but not N95 masks, are to be worn at all times at the hospital.

The employees saidstaff have been refused extra protection when treating COVID-19 patients, and lax protocols create a risk of spread throughout the hospital.

The employees saidthey're fearful of bringing the virus home to vulnerable family members and called onVitalit for change.

As of last Wednesday, 10 employees of the Campbellton Regional Hospital had tested positive for COVID-19 and 31 others were self-isolating.

One of the positive cases was determinedto bea false positive over the weekend, Lanteigne said.

About half of the 40 affected employees are expected to return to work by Friday, he said.