'What are they trying to hide?': B.C.'s refusal to release hospital ejection data concerns advocate

A month after they announced plans were underway to eject hundreds of hospital patients to make room for a potential wave of COVID-19 and influenza patients, British Columbia’s government is fighting to conceal how many have been sent away.

A month after they announced plans were underway to eject hundreds of hospital patients to make room for a potential wave of COVID-19 and influenza patients, British Columbia’s government is fighting to conceal how many have been sent away.

On Sept. 28, the health minister announced 1,300 patients were earmarked for care “in community” with another 500 to go to care homes, and blindsided stakeholders immediately replied that they were “not sure if it's attainable” given the critical staffing shortages.

When CTV News tried to find out if any space had been found for them, the ministry of health provided a long email reiterating that the patients didn’t require hospital-level care in the first place, but not answering the question of how many of the 1,800 had been ejected.

After several subsequent requests for the information that were not acknowledged, a senior public affairs officer wrote, “You will need to submit a Freedom of Information Request for this information.”

The request did not include any personal or sensitive medical information, and the watchdog group that monitors government disclosure and use of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act denounced the decision not to release information in the public interest.

“They are weaponizing freedom of information,” said Jason Woywada, executive director of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. “They’re using it as a scapegoat and a shield in order to say ‘oh, it’s not us, it’s the act.’ These are politicians that are making these decisions, they can choose to proactively release the information.”

He pointed to this as yet another example of a government the outgoing premier once claimed was “the most transparent jurisdiction in North America” as anything but. The official opposition echoed that criticism, pointing out it’s become standard practice for the current New Democrat administration.