Beginning Tuesday (Oct. 26), all healthcare workers in B.C. must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Those who are not fully vaccinated will be placed on unpaid leave. Eventually, they could lose their jobs.
In a COVID-19 briefing Tuesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix says this could lead to more staffing shortages in the Interior.
“We see the most challenge in Interior Health because it has the highest rate of unvaccinated people in the province – and therefore less (challenge) in Northern Health and less in the other health authorities,” Dix said. “We’re hopeful that some people — and we’ve been seeing this in the last number of days — will get immunized. We’re hopeful that they’ll do that and address the problem.”
Staffing and capacity are already major issues in Interior Health. Dix noted on Tuesday that 1,528 acute care beds in the health authority were being occupied. That is above the total base beds in the region (1,436), but within the capacity of combined base and surge beds (1,842).
Dix says some services may be altered or curtailed as staffing numbers come down due to staff not wishing to abide by the vaccine mandate.
“It’s fair to say that in some areas — for example, diagnostic imaging or labs — in different parts of the province there will be some impact. We will either have to initially reduce hours in order to address that or provide other staff in the weeks to come,” he said. “We’re working through that now.”
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