Critics question Ontario watchdog’s decision to keep health-care worker shortage data confidential
A team leader nurse gets updates from another nurse while they treat patients inside the intensive care unit of Humber River Hospital in Toronto, on April 20, 2021.CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
Health care stakeholders and an expert on privacy are criticizing a recent ruling that allows the government of Ontario to keep details of the province’s shortages of nurses, personal support workers and doctors confidential.
Alec Fadel, an adjudicator at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, was ruling on a bid by journalists at Global News to obtain human-resources data from the Ministry of Health through a freedom of information request.
Mr. Fadel acknowledged in his decision, released April 16, that there is “compelling public interest” in disclosing the figures. But he said this did not outweigh the Ministry of Health’s concerns that releasing detailed data could have a negative impact on the province’s ability to negotiate with doctors, nurses or private staffing agencies.
The Global News journalists will not seek a judicial review of the decision, they said.
Critics decried Mr. Fadel’s decision, saying he had relied too heavily on the government’s claim that making those figures public would be harmful to its relations with health professionals or private staffing agencies.
“This ruling is wrong-headed. The rationale for it really just doesn’t hold water. And I think it’s a dangerous ruling for Ontario,” Natalie Mehra, executive director of the non-profit Ontario Health Coalition, said in an interview.
She alluded to recent closings of emergency rooms, birthing units and outpatient labs in the province. “There couldn’t be a more pressing public interest than to know the data about the extent of the staffing shortages and whether or not the staffing plans of the government are adequate.”
Ms. Mehra also noted that the
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