Pilot program to determine if injured-worker clinic is needed

The organization of injured workers and labour groups in Thunder Bay is so strong, the chairman of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario said he expects the city’s newly opened Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers to be one of the busiest in the province.

OHCOW clinics are a free service for workers and employers that are worried about the workplace affecting their health and with $250,000 the Thunder Bay clinic will run a one-year pilot program to see if the clinic is needed in Thunder Bay.

"If there’s no bodies coming through the door and people don’t take advantage of this and we don’t’ get the word out, then it’s going to be difficult," said WSIB chairman Steve Mahoney. "But I’d be really surprised at that."

Mahoney said he’s been hearing for the last year or two from area residents that a clinic was needed in Thunder Bay to deal not only with injured workers but also with occupational disease.

"These folks have to go all the way to Sudbury just to get diagnosed," he said. "We thought that was unfair. We were interested in responding as best we could given the financial pressures we’re under to see if we could get a clinic up and running here."

Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group past president Steve Mantis said the clinic is necessary in Thunder Bay and he believes it will be well used.

"We have a type of industry with the forest industry and the mining that’s different than what you see in southern Ontario," he said.

"We have different hazards and different diseases and we need technical supports, professionals that know the ins and outs about the health and the health ramifications in the workplace to be able to call on to help us make the right decisions so when we take action to make our workplaces healthier we’re doing it with good knowledge and good support down the road."

OHCOW managing director Alex Farquhar said people can use the clinic to get expertise from a doctor, nurse or even ergonomist to determine what the exact cause of their injury or illness is.

"Sometimes the problem you start with, you might been misinterpreting what’s going on and it might be that instead of bad air, it might be eyestrain," he said. "(We can) deal with those issues so we really have a much healthier and safe workplace in the future."

Farquhar said he’s pleased with the start-up support they’ve received from the WSIB, but they now need to show the clinic is needed in the region.

"I really think there is a big need for our service here and we’re really hoping our funding is continued beyond this year," he said.

While Mantis said he’s pleased they have enough to get things going, he said they need to have fulltime staff that they can work with year after year to understand what the hazards are, find solutions and implement them.

This is the sixth OHCOW facility in Ontario. There are clinics already in Sudbury, Sarnia, Windsor, Hamilton and Toronto.