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More than 100 B.C. nurses penned a letter this week to B.C.’s provincial health officer calling for an end to the province’s requirement that unvaccinated health-care workers wear a mask throughout flu season.

A similar policy in Ontario was struck down by arbitrator James Hayes, who found “scant evidence of the use of masks in reducing the transmission of influenza to patients.” That’s led Saskatchewan to review its policy and Alberta is stalling implementation of its own.

“To continue the current policy will do nothing to protect our patients from influenza, and can only damage mutual trust and respect between health-care professionals,” the letter reads. “We ask you to follow the lead of Saskatchewan and suspend the compulsory masking requirement until B.C. has reviewed the implications of the Ontario decision.”

In September, the B.C. Nurses Union filed an Industry Wide Application Dispute in response to the policy that was implemented in 2013. President Gayle Duteil wrote to B.C. health employers asking them to revoke the policy in light of the arbitration in Ontario, but were told nothing would change.

Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.’s chief medical health officer, said the Ontario decision has no implication for B.C.

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