Sick leaves among B.C. health-care workers have increased since start of pandemic, data shows
CBC
This story is part of Situation Critical, a series from CBC British Columbia reporting on the barriers people in this province face in accessing timely and appropriate health care.
Data shows that sick leaves in B.C.'s health-care sector are up by a marked amount compared to pre-pandemic levels.
According to numbers requested by CBC News, an average of 9.7 per cent of health-care workers in the public system were off sick for at least a day during the last three weeks of July and the first two weeks of August.
That compares to six per cent of staff having sick hours weekly before the pandemic, a number released by Health Minister Adrian Dix last month.
The data has led to advocates calling for better support for staff, and steps to reduce COVID transmission to reduce the burden on hospital workers.
"In terms of there being an increase of health-care workers currently on sick leave, I'm actually not surprised by that," said Adriane Gear, vice-president of the B.C. Nurses' Union.
"We've also seen a spike in COVID infections. Nurses and other health-care workers … unfortunately, they, too, are getting sick."
Andrew Longhurst, a health policy researcher at Simon Fraser University, said it is especially concerning that the disease burden has been high during the summer months, when respiratory illnesses are usually not prominent.
"Going now into the fall, when we're likely to see even greater demand on health-care services, we're likely to be continuing to experience significant sickness related absences," he said. "It's not sustainable. It's clearly not working right now."
B.C.'s public health-care system has been significantly impacted by closures over the past few months.
Longhurst says the situation will likely continue unless the province makes concerted efforts to reduce disease transmission through universal measures like masking and widespread testing.
A spokesperson for the Health Ministry said they are not quantifying how many workers are off sick with COVID during any given week.
"While health-care workers are prioritized for COVID-19 testing, many are using rapid antigen tests, which are not reported in the way that PCR tests are," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Not everyone who has symptoms is getting tested and not all health-care workers who do get a reportable PCR test identify as a health-care worker.
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