B.C. to bolster health care for fall

Goal is to handle COVID, flu surges while normal surgeries continue

VICTORIA B.C. is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to boost the health care system this fall in an attempt to keep hospitals open for normal admissions, surgeries and ordinary influenza patients, while also handling a surge of COVID -19 cases.

Premier John Horgan unveiled the plan Wednesday, built upon an analysis of B.C.’s traditional winter flu demands matched to a range of pandemic predictions.

In the worst-case scenario, the province says it has enough beds and ventilators to handle as many as double the COVID-19 cases seen during the peak periods from March to May, on top of regular hospital demands and flu cases.

The fall plan is underpinned by several changes to B.C.’s policies, including a shift from a provincewide health care response used when the pandemic began in March, toward a regional approach that health officials said could be narrowed down to individual communities based on potential surges around the province.

However, government modelling also predicts COVID-19 will continue to be primarily centred in the Lower Mainland, which has the densest population and highest number of cases.

“For us to succeed in delivering better primary care, and to do so in the context of a pandemic, means that all of us have to continue to be all-in in our effort to fight COVID back,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix. “This plan is a plan for the health system, but really it’s a plan for all of us.”

During the initial outbreak of COVID -19 in March, B.C. cancelled all but urgent surgeries in all hospitals in an attempt to free up beds for a planned surge of patients suffering from the virus. Yet the wave of admissions largely failed to occur, and more than 30,000 patients saw surgeries delayed.

This time, B.C.’s plan calls for hospitals to stay open as much as possible, with as many restored surgeries conducted as possible, as the health care system tries to respond to COVID -19 cases during the fall and winter’s ordinary flu season.

Government modelling sets out surge capacity for 19 key COVID-19 sites, as well as plans for low, medium and high coronavirus outbreaks.

The plan indicates the province has enough ventilators and beds to meet predicted demand.

Testing capacity will be boosted from 5,000 to 6,000 a day, to as many as 20,000 COVID-19 tests per day, said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. The government also plans to hire 500 more contact tracers to chase down outbreaks, as well as 5,000 new health care aides for long-term care homes, and 2,000 new staff for infection control and prevention at assisted-living and long-term care homes.

But there aren’t enough details on how government intends to train and hire nurses to fill the shortage, said B.C. Nurses’ Union president Christine Sorensen.

“While I’m really quite pleased at the government’s efforts to respond to the health crisis and plan and prepare for the fall, I remain very concerned about the lack of the government’s health human resource plan that’s specific to nurses and the ongoing nurse shortage across the province,” she said.

“The challenge around educating, recruiting and hiring nurses who require four years of education to keep up with the significant demand is the government’s Achilles heel in this whole plan and it’s the question I keep asking.”

That aside, Sorensen said government’s overall plan to try to keep hospitals and surgeries open while managing COVID -19 is commendable and well-thought-out because it learned lessons from B.C.’s earlier experiences in the spring.

It will also require people to follow public health directives, to help reduce the demand on the system, she said.

B.C. plans to buy almost two million flu vaccine doses for the fall, and will launch an “enhanced influenza campaign” to encourage vaccination, though health officials say that doesn’t include making vaccines mandatory.

Every senior in long-term care and assisted living will get a high-intensity flu vaccine dose as well, according to the plan.

Flu vaccines could be available in a broad number of community locations, including at clinics and pharmacies. However, students will not be vaccinated at school or without parental permission.

B.C.’s model shows hospital admissions peak during a normal influenza year in mid-December and run until mid-March.

Horgan earmarked $1.6 billion for the health care system to boost hiring, and personal protective equipment and services, of which $850 million had already been previously announced.