The virtual registration pilot at St. Joseph’s urgent care centre is a mistake as it will discriminatorily impact vulnerable groups of people without fixing the core issue, lengthening wait-times, according to CUPE.
Last week, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton announced that patients will be able to self-register for urgent care prior to arrival at the King Campus in an ostensible effort to reduce wait-times amidst rising demand.
However, the union representing 2,000 workers at the hospital says virtual registration will create a two-tier system that will provide faster access to certain segments of the population at the expense of others.
“Virtual self-registration is discrimination dressed up as innovation,” says Rick Rigby, president of CUPE 786. “It undermines service based on class, disability, and status. It will marginalize people who don’t have access to the internet or smartphones, such as the homeless population in our city. It will hurt people who are not tech-savvy or have visual impairment, including many senior citizens. It will also hurt people who are not comfortable navigating digital forms in English or French, such as many newcomers to Canada. We are disappointed that the hospital has not been able to find a more equitable solution to longer wait-times.”
While demand for urgent care is rising rapidly at King Campus, registration times do not pose a barrier, according to Rigby. He says it only takes a few minutes to register patients. The hospital could add more staff to reduce system pressures.
“Oftentimes, people are swiftly registered but waiting hours anyway because doctors and nurses are dealing with the large volume of patients,” he said. “That does not help patients who register in advance. And if they come in and expect faster service, that would only intensify pressure on staff who already face aggression and violence from some members of the public.”
Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, OCHU-CUPE, said the hospital must ensure an equity lens, which is an important cornerstone of the public health care system.
“We can’t presume everyone can access technology in the same way,” he said. “We don’t want a situation where well to-do, relatively healthier patients are jumping ahead of more vulnerable people. That type of disparity would undermine the accessibility principle of the Canada Health Act.”
