'A B.C. that works for all British Columbians' needs a functioning health-care system
Dear Premier:
If you want to start fixing health care, there are three easy and obvious moves you can make. Currently, your government is doing none of these, but you could change this.
To begin with, we must acknowledge the simple fact that we are not “post-COVID” nor “post-pandemic.”
In May 2023, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19’s emergency phase to be over but at no point did it declare the pandemic to be over. We may all be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.
First, it’s time to improve COVID prevention in health-care facilities. Doing so will significantly relieve pressure on hospital beds and reduce the number of health-care workers off sick.
Recently four Fraser Health Authority hospitals – Surrey Memorial, Royal Columbian, Delta and Abbotsford Regional Hospital – all had COVID-19 outbreaks.
The situation is likely no better in B.C.’s other health authorities. We only know about Fraser Health because unlike the others, it is more transparent.
When there are already too few hospital beds, the last thing we should be doing is infecting patients who are in hospital for another reason, and needlessly prolonging their hospital stays.
For the week of September 22, stats from the Canadian Nosocomial (Hospital-Acquired) Infection Surveillance Program, with data from 78 hospitals, including 16 in BC, show that 31% of patients in hospital with COVID acquired their infection while admitted for another medical condition.
This is a major failure by public health and Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC).
Before the pandemic began, Canada already had one of the lowest numbers of hospital beds per population out of the OECD countries. That number had never kept up with our population growth let alone with our aging demographic.
Now add to that problem lengthened hospital stays, increased COVID hospitalizations and outbreaks, and an explosion in chronic diseases and disability following repeated COVID infections.
Second, Premier Eby, you should be ensuring that British Columbians get access to the new updated COVID vaccines immediately. This would prevent COVID-19 hospitalizations, lessen transmission and disease severity and would also protect health-care providers and keep them on the job.
I know that going into an election you’d much rather not talk about COVID. However, delaying COVID vaccines until after the election, or under the guise of co-administering it with influenza vaccine, is only repeating last fall’s error.
Vaccination should always occur before infections peak. This year, the United States sped up its vaccine approval and started vaccinating at the end of August.
Health Canada has already approved the 2024-25 updated COVID-19 vaccines, what are we waiting for?
Third, I understand Premier that you would much rather delay the re-introduction of masks (preferably well fitted and high grade) in health care until after the election, but that would also be a mistake.
Recall what happened in 2020, it wasn’t until two days after the election that new regulations came into effect, and by then it was too late to stop the spread.
Yes, votes matter, but so do voters’ health.
Finally, Premier, there is no longer any serious debate that COVID is spread through the air, not by the hands. Keeping COVID out of all health-care facilities will require cleaning the air.
Yes, you can still wash your hands, but to prevent COVID infections, it’s the air that matters.
Appallingly, in 2024, B.C. public health and infection prevention and control (IPAC) leaders at hospitals and the Provincial Infection Control Network of BC still continue to push for handwashing and surface cleaning to protect against COVID.
Clearly this strategy is not working, as health-care facilities outbreaks keep happening and patients and health-care workers keep getting infected, with some dying and others developing Long COVID.
At this point in the pandemic, repeating the same error over and over while expecting different results is beyond madness, it is reckless and incompetent.
British Columbians deserve better public health and IPAC leaders. Health-care workers should be able to rely on effective workplace health and safety measures to protect them from getting sick on the job. But most of all, patients should not fear infections whenever they seek medical care or are admitted to a hospital.
In summary, Premier Eby, getting updated COVID vaccines into arms now and bringing masks and clean air into all health-care settings will help preserve BC’s health care capacity now.
"A B.C. that works for all British Columbians" needs a functioning health-care system.
Currently, British Columbians have neither.
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Lyne Filiatrault is retired emergency physician in B.C.