Illicit-drug use in Island Health hospitals prompts investigation by WorkSafeBC

WorkSafeBC has inspected several Island Health hospitals following complaints of nurses and health-care staff being exposed to illicit-drug smoke, Postmedia has learned.

The inspections at Campbell River General Hospital, Victoria General Hospital, Royal Jubilee in Victoria, and at several community health sites were in response to “several symptomatic worker exposures to illicit substances in Island Health work sites,” according to a WorkSafeBC report dated June 15, 2023.

B.C. Nurses' Union president Adriane Gear said the inspections illustrate how challenging it is to keep nurses safe on the job when they are constantly at risk of being exposed to illicit drug smoke.

The issue came to the fore this week following the release of a leaked Northern Health memo that advised nurses not to confiscate drugs or small knives from patients.

MLAs for B.C. United, which released the memo, say rampant drug use in hospitals is linked to the B.C. NDP government's “failed experiment” with drug decriminalization.

Elenore Sturko, the Opposition's addictions critic, accused the government of “refusing to prioritize the safety of nurses and patients over the use of crystal meth, cocaine and fentanyl in hospitals.”

Health Minister Adrian Dix spent Thursday doing damage control, insisting that open drug use is not permitted in B.C. hospitals, but at the same time, acknowledging that people break the rules.

“Of course, just as elsewhere, not everybody follows the rules,” Dix said. “And that presents real difficulties … for health-care workers and for staff.”

Hospital staff practise harm reduction, Dix said, and if someone with addiction wants to use drugs, they would be directed either to an adjacent overdose-prevention site or an outside smoking area.

However, the WorkSafeBC report found that because Island Health rolled out its harm-reduction policy without a detailed plan on how to mitigate staff exposure to illicit drugs, it has created “considerable friction” between “harm-reduction-focused staff and acute-care staff.”

The WorkSafeBC inspections at Island Health hospitals began March 2023 and continued until May 2023 and included interviews with health-care staff and union safety representatives.

The inspecting officer determined “the employer is not meeting their obligations around training and education” regarding risk of exposure to illicit substances. For example, staff interviewed did not know how to carry out a risk assessment of what to do if a patient has been smoking illicit substances in a small space such as a bathroom, the report said.

Island Health was ordered to improve its training, which WorkSafeBC said can be phased in by prioritizing high-exposure risk areas first and the employees who are most at risk of exposure.

No one from Island Health was available for an interview Thursday, but a spokesman said in a statement that all issues identified in the WorkSafeBC report have been addressed.

The health authority acknowledged that despite policies that prohibit smoking of any substance in hospitals “there have been instances where staff in our hospitals, including at North Island Hospital, Campbell River, have been exposed to smoke from a substance.”

Island Health said it has rolled out training on how to mitigate exposure to unregulated substances, which is mandatory for all new hires and has been completed by 5,300 employees.

The health authority provides personal protective equipment to staff and trains them when to use it to reduce exposure to unregulated drug smoke.

During question period on Wednesday, B.C. United MLAs pointed to concerning cases in Island Health hospitals, where an infant was reportedly exposed to drug smoke and a nurse recently returned from maternity leave was exposed to fentanyl smoke and advised not to breastfeed her baby.

Island Health said in Victoria General Hospital's maternity ward, there have been “instances of patients violating the no-smoking policies,” which is why smoke detectors have been installed in the perinatal units and other areas of the hospital.

However, Island Health said they are battery-powered smoke detectors, not devices specific to drug particulates.

A nurse at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops told Postmedia she was supervising her floor last month when a nursing colleague was exposed to illicit-drug smoke, which exacerbated their asthma. The colleague filed a WorkSafeBC claim, said the nurse, who did not want her name used for fear of workplace repercussions. There have also been fires in hospital bathrooms from patients trying to hide their smoking materials, she said.

The nurse said she's got headaches from walking into a patient's room after they've smoked drugs.

“I've been nursing for 14 years and … the illicit-drug use is just so, so much more prevalent.”

Dr. Claudine Storness-Bliss, cohead of obstetrics at Surrey Memorial Hospital, said while she doesn't work in the emergency department, open drug use is a constant concern for doctors and nurses.

“Have I seen open drug use in the hospital? Absolutely,” said Storness-Bliss, who is also a B.C. United candidate for the Surrey-Cloverdale riding in the next election. “There's bathroom ODs (overdoses) in emergency daily.”

When a nurse goes into the bathroom to help the patient, they run the risk of being exposed to drug smoke, she said.

Storness-Bliss said while official health authority policy is that patients are not allowed to smoke or openly use drugs in the hospital, “what happens is if they do, you then call security and security can't do anything. They can't remove them from their bed because they can't kick them out and they can't take away their drugs. And it's the same for small weapons.”

Dix said the government has hired 230 security guards at health-care sites provincewide.

“This is not an issue of decrim. This is an issue of dealing with people in the health-care environment with severe illnesses,” he said.