Director of care home with worst COVID-19 death toll in B.C. resigns

VANCOUVER

The executive director of a long-term care home that was the site of British Columbia’s deadliest COVID19 outbreak has resigned.

Vancouver Coastal Health says in a statement that Little Mountain Place recently notified the health authority that its administrator had submitted her resignation.

The health authority says it has provided Little Mountain with an interim administrator to support the care home’s transition.

The health authority did not say why Angela Millar resigned or who will replace her.

Millar could not be reached for comment.

Forty-one residents at Little Mountain Place died, out of 99 who tested positive, before the outbreak was declared over on Jan. 29.

Vancouver Coastal Health says it works in partnership with contracted long-term care homes like Little Mountain to ensure that residents receive safe, quality care.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the health authority has provided “enormous support” to Little Mountain.

“Someone has decided to step down after I think what we’d all acknowledge has been an extraordinary period,” he said at the province’s COVID-19 briefing on Friday.

“People are quite right to say changing one person is not everything. Of course it isn’t. But the supports are being provided by Vancouver Coastal Health to our contracted provider.”

There are long-term care homes still dealing with significant outbreaks in B.C. and even though there has been a major push to immunize residents, those outbreaks preceded those efforts, Dix said.

“There’s a long way to go in this pandemic, a lot of work left to be done and a lot of work left to improve long-term care in B.C.”