B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said despite thousands of health care workers off sick around the province, no patient is being denied care or left unfed.
The statement comes on the heels of Helen Bell, 61, being called by hospital staff at 7:45 a.m. on Monday and asked if she could feed her mother three meals that day. Bell was back again Tuesday to do the same.
“There’s no question that there is staffing challenges,” Dix said Tuesday. “But there’s also no question that everyone is going to be fed in that process.”
From Jan. 24 to 30, a total of 17,756 health care workers called in sick around the province including 3,406 in Island Health. The province has about 188,000 active health-care workers.
It is “not unusual” that visitors, whether they be essential or otherwise, be asked to contribute to the care of a patient, said Dix. “Sometimes people get asked to come in and help.”
The minister, for privacy reasons, couldn’t speak to the specifics of what happened with Bell. Her mother Margaret Mears, 87, who goes by Margot, has an antibiotic-caused neuropathy that has left her temporarily unable to use her hands and feet. Mears lived independently in Saanich prior to her hospital admission.
Bell didn’t take exception to being asked to help but rather disagreed with the province signalling it will relax pandemic restrictions despite the fact hospitals are at capacity and there is not enough staff to feed patients.
“It’s hard speaking out but I think it’s important for people to know what it means when 1,000 extra people are hospitalized and the workforce has significantly shrunk due to staff illness,” Bell said. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry signalled again Tuesday that there will be relaxations of restrictions this month.
The province reported 1,236 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, with 188 of those in Island Health, for a total of 28,302 active cases in B.C. including 1,534 on the Island. There are outbreaks in three acute care hospitals: Victoria General Hospital, Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, and Cowichan District Hospital.
Dix has said visitors frequently help with patient care “either because they want to or because the patient, who’s a relative, may ask them to or because the care staff think that’s a good idea.”
Island Health said essential visitors may be asked if they are willing to support their loved one with basic tasks, “as this can be very helpful to our teams when we are experiencing particularly challenging staffing issues.” In general, when a patient’s loved ones visit them in the hospital for long periods of time, they are asked if they are willing to assist with basic care needs. This may include feeding or other simple care tasks, said the health authority.
Henry reported Tuesday that the province has more people in hospital with COVID than ever before, most with the Omicron variant. The majority were initially admitted for reasons unrelated to the virus. Increasingly, hospital admissions are in people who are older and more likely to have underlying illness.
Omicron is causing fewer cases requiring critical care and resulting in death but given the sheer number of new daily cases, hospitalization and critical care numbers remain high. Greatly helping to reduce the severity of illness and death is the vaccination level in B.C., said Henry. Ninety per cent of eligible people 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 46 per cent have received their boosters.
