Fellow Ontarians and Canadians, on behalf of all Health Care Professionals (HCP's), I want to say that we are proud to serve our community. We all take pride in our jobs, whether we are Diagnostic Imaging, Medical Lab or Cardiology technologists. We are privileged to work along side our RNs, porters, clerical, and housekeeping staff, and fully acknowledge that without anyone of them, the hospital would falter.

Unfortunately, the technology professionals were left out of pandemic pay considerations. We aren't often in the forefront of society's mind when they think of "health care professional", but we are. We help save lives, help make a diagnosis, comfort and care for our patients. We stand alongside our colleagues and celebrate our individual skill sets that result in helping people.

We still dread that phone call from Occupational health telling us we have been exposed to an infected patient and yet we still go back to carry on our duty, regardless of the risks. This isn't so much about money as it is about recognition for the work we do and the sacrifices we make, the acknowledgement that we contribute in a meaningful way to the continued care of our fellow citizens. There is an under current of animosity brewing within the hospitals. To feel that you are lesser to your colleagues, and for your colleagues to suddenly feel awkward because they have been recognized while we stay in the shadows? None of this is a healthy environment for one already under extreme pressure.

Please ask anyone, if you have ever had a loved one or you yourself has been cared for in a hospital, to please sign this to show support for the "other" HCP's. The often unseen but just as integral professionals that contribute to getting people back to a healthy life.

Ask Doug Ford to expand his pandemic pay to encompass all of us who risk our health and leave our families to support our community, and will continue to do so with or without pandemic pay. It would be appreciated, however, to join the ranks of our more well known colleagues in being afforded this gratitude.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6935075/coronavirus-some-hospital-workers-excluded-ontario-pandemic-pay/