Some B.C. surgeries postponed due to unvaccinated health-care workers

B.C.’s Health Minister Adrian Dix said Monday the health-care workers on unpaid leave due to the COVID-19 vaccine requirement are having an impact on hospitals around the province.

Dix said 3,325 health-care workers, or about 2.6 per cent of the workforce, are not yet vaccinated and have been placed on unpaid leave.

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The greatest number of those are in Interior Health, with 1,018 health-care workers, who have worked at least one shift in the last three months, now on leave.

Kelowna General Hospital has reduced two operating rooms this week to compensate for staff who did not meet vaccination requirements and are now on unpaid leave, Dix confirmed.

“This will improve next week with just one operating room reduced and then we hope in two weeks, the situation will improve further,” he said.

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Non-urgent eye care procedures in Kelowna’s eye care centre have also been postponed in order to respond to critical care surge planning needs.

Keremeos has reduced its emergency room operation hours and similarly, in Kamloops, at Royal Inland Hospital, a number of inpatient services surgeries have been postponed.

Dix said, since last May when surgeries were first postponed due to the pandemic, the “vast majority of operating rooms” have continued to run.

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But challenges remain, particularly in Interior Health and Northern Health, where vaccination rates were the lowest in the province.

In Fraser Health, a small number of surgeries have been postponed, Dix said, due to staff not meeting vaccination requirements, but they do not expect further disruptions.

Abbotsford Regional Hospital continues to keep one operating room closed due to the ongoing demand for critical care and for November the hospital will focus on same-day surgeries that do not require a stay in the hospital, Dix explained.

There have been no surgeries postponed in Vancouver Coastal Health as a result of unvaccinated staff, however, the number of operating rooms functioning has been reduced for quite some time already.

These include two operating rooms at Lionsgate Hospital, three operating rooms at St Paul’s, one operating room at Mount St. Joseph’s and one operating room at Richmond Hospital.

Dix said plans are in place to resume surgeries in these operating rooms beginning in the new year at Richmond Hospital and in February at St. Paul’s, Lionsgate and Mount St. Joseph’s.

On Vancouver Island, no surgeries have been affected by unvaccinated staff.

Non-urgent surgeries at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital will remain postponed this week, with some resuming next week, Dix said.

“One to two operating rooms will continue to be reduced daily at the hospital to support the ongoing need for critical care,” he added.

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At Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, procedures in one operating room will continue to be reduced through to Dec. 17 to support the demand for critical care.

In the meantime, Victoria General Hospital has resumed non-urgent surgeries.

In Northern Health, where dozens of people in hospitals have already been moved to other locations to make room in the ICUs for more patients, Dix said no surgical postponements have occurred as a result of unvaccinated staff.

At Bulkley Valley District Hospital, day-to-day “postponements continue in order to support critical care,” Dix said.

Dawson Creek Hospital is prioritizing urgent, emergent and cancer surgeries to support critical care capacity and an increase in COVID-19 admissions.

It is the same situation at St. John Hospital in Vanderhoof, Dix said.

University Hospital of Northern British Columbia in Prince George continues to maintain reduced surgical operations, but that is expected to increase to four operating rooms, starting November, Dix said.

At Prince Rupert Regional Hospital, for the month of November, operating room staff are being redeployed in the emergency department due to staffing pressures.

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At the PHSA, the Provincial Health Services Authority, Dix said no surgical postponements have occurred as a result of unvaccinated staff.

However, B.C. Children’s Hospital and B.C. Women’s Hospital will experience an impact on future surgeries due to the upcoming Clinical and Systems Transformation Project, designed to improve safety, quality and consistency of patient care, Dix added.

-with files from Kathy Michaels