The mayor of Merritt believes the provincial government could start curing the health-care system by lifting the vaccine mandate for health-care workers B次元官网网址渞ight now.B次元官网网址�

Mike Goetz said dropping the mandate would be part of a bolder approach, including the use of physician assistants, to help fix health care in smaller communities like Merritt.

According to the website BC Health Care System , staffing shortages closed MerrittB次元官网网址檚 Nicola Valley HospitalB次元官网网址檚 emergency five times between Nov. 15 and Jan. 17.

Goetz also pointed to the situation in the Kootenay community of Elkford, whose emergency room has been closed for 16 months.

B次元官网网址淭here are solutions, but you have to be more broad-minded about it and stop following the status quo,B次元官网网址� Goetz told Black Press Media. B次元官网网址淭ake a step out, maybe swim against the stream. We are looking for answers and some of them are staring blatantly in your face and maybe it is time we move in that direction.B次元官网网址�

Public health orders dating back to October 2021 require workers in hospitals, long-term care homes and community health centres to get vaccinated for COVID-19. The provincial mandate, one of only two remaining in Canada, applies to 190,000 individuals. The province fired 2,496 health-care workers who refused vaccinations. Of those fired, over 1,200 worked in Interior and Northern Health authorities, where staffing shortages tend to impact smaller communities.

The province also issued an order requiring all professional colleges regulating health-care practitioners to collect information on their vaccine status, but did not require all health-care professionals to be vaccinated.

Anyone working for the public service, which employs about 30,000 people, must also be vaccinated.

Goetz, who chairs the B.C. Rural Health Care Alliance representing municipal officials from communities across the province from the Kootenays to northern Vancouver Island, first raised the mandate during a conference call with Interior Health in January. He hasnB次元官网网址檛 received a response and heB次元官网网址檚 not waiting for one.

B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 a small-city mayor,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淚 donB次元官网网址檛 expect to hear anything from them.B次元官网网址�

Goetz said staff shortages in the health-care system are not new and the province needs to act.

B次元官网网址淵ou start to look at this kind of thing and wonder where the intestinal fortitude to make a change is,B次元官网网址� he said.

So how much of a difference would 2,500 additional workers make?

B次元官网网址淎nything is better than nothing,B次元官网网址� Goetz said.

It is not necessarily about the numbers of fired workers, but the signal that their return would send.

B次元官网网址淭his is about people seeing that you are actually trying to do something,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淚 understand 2,500 people isnB次元官网网址檛 going to change the course of whatB次元官网网址檚 happening, I do get that. But at least you are doing something and you are showing that you care.B次元官网网址�

The demand from the alliance to lift the vaccine requirement mirrors earlier calls from the B.C. Liberals, who had called on the province in June 2022 to follow the federal government in suspending the vaccine mandate for provincial employees.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said vaccination requirements remain in place to protect the provinceB次元官网网址檚 most vulnerable and the health-care system.

B次元官网网址淚n B.C. and globally, measures taken to combat the ongoing public health emergency remain important,B次元官网网址� the spokesperson said in a statement.

B次元官网网址淭he trajectory of the pandemic over the next few months is uncertain as there is still significant spread of the COVID-19 virus in the province and around the world.B次元官网网址�

wolfgang.depner@blackpress.ca
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