'We were looked upon as monsters': COVID-19 vaccine policies at Ont. hospitals keep health workers from filling staff shortages

As Ontario's hospitals continue to grapple with significant staffing shortages, COVID-19 vaccine policies are keeping some health-care workers from stepping in to help.

It has prompted calls from former staff to let them come back after being fired for not being fully vaccinated.

Krista Ruddy was forced to trade in her medical scrubs for a safety vest as she began a new career.

"It hurt and it was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through in my life," said Ruddy, through tears.

The former medical lab technician was fired from Kitchener's Grand River Hospital (GRH) during the pandemic because she didn't get vaccinated against COVID-19.

"I don't know, we were looked upon as monsters," she said.

GRH is just one of Ontario's 140 public hospitals that terminated health-care workers for not getting two COVID-19 vaccinations in 2021. Since then, hospitals across the province have seen dire staffing shortages, resulting in emergency room closures and cancelled surgeries.

Ontario is one of the country's remaining provinces that still requires medical workers to be vaccinated. Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon no longer have that requirement.

"Legislatively, the province could order that there be no mandates, but they haven't done so," said human rights lawyer Lisa Bildy.

Despite the province dropping its health sector mandate in March, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) continues to recommend mandatory vaccination policies. Provincial officials said hospitals can chart their own course, prompting some to question why workers haven't been hired back given the lack of staff.

"In Alberta, the government did, in fact, tell the Alberta Health Services that they needed to bring back unvaccinated workers. We haven't done that here. I'm not quite sure why," said Bildy.

CTV News reached out to GRH, Guelph General Hospital and the OHA to find out how many health workers quit or were fired because of vaccination policies. CTV News also wanted to ask if bringing back those workers is being considered, but did not hear back by air time.

Former workers like Ruddy said it's upsetting to sit back and watch the health-care system buckle while there are qualified people waiting to help.

"I've been waiting. I've had hope this whole time that something would just click into people's minds," said Ruddy.

And as Ontario's hospitals continue to struggle, those who were let go are struggling in a different sense.

"I cared about the people that I went there for," Ruddy said. "It wasn't just a job and in the blink of an eye, everything was just gone."

With files from CTV National News.