Tag Archives: Vancouver Coastal Health

Health

BC’s Rural Emergency Room Crisis

An alarming trend to watch.

Editor’s note: During a protest over closures at North Island ERs, Adriane Gear VP of the BC Nurses Union told CHEK NEWS, “Our nurses are very worried. The Campbell River Hospital, I understand at any given time could be at 140%, 145% capacity, and at the same time there’s maybe only 60% to 70% of the nurses that would be normally scheduled to work.”  

By Michelle Gamage, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The province’s emergency rooms are in crisis.

ERs across the Lower Mainland have made the news for being at capacity and past their breaking points. This overcrowding led to the death of an infant in 2020 and a senior in 2022.

Doctors have even been urging people to stay away and seek help elsewhere. In the Lower Mainland one in 10 patients are leaving ERs without seeing a doctor, according to reporting by CTV. 

Continue reading BC’s Rural Emergency Room Crisis →
Housing

Unions Criticize Vancouver’s Continuing Tent Sweeps

By  Zak Vescera, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Vancouver’s continuing efforts to remove tents from the Downtown Eastside has drawn criticism from some unions and many of the  municipality’s own workers.   

Unions representing  hospital staff, shelter workers and even employees who began clearing  the tents on East Hastings Street on April 5 have condemned the approach  of city and police, saying it left displaced residents in an even more  desperate situation. 

Continue reading Unions Criticize Vancouver’s Continuing Tent Sweeps →
Indigenous Nations

Tla’amin First Nation invests in survival

qathet Living, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After a year and a half of working with First Nations across Vancouver Island as harm reduction educator, Courtney Harrop has taken on a new position: Tla’amin Nation’s harm reduction coordinator.

“All lives have value,” says Courtney. “Harm reduction allows us to reduce harms or potential risks for all kinds of things, not just drugs and alcohol. Harm reduction also helps us to be more cautious and supportive around things like safer sex, blood-borne transmitted diseases and STI’s, as well as housing and food insecurity.”

Continue reading Tla’amin First Nation invests in survival →
Health

Island Health not exempt from B.C.’s record toxic street drug death toll


National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

B.C. communities large and small are suffering devastating losses as deaths from toxic street drugs reached an all-time high with 2,224 people dying from overdoses in the province last year. 

Every health authority saw a record loss of lives in 2021 as an average of six people died each day from toxic drugs, said B.C.’s Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe on Wednesday, and communities across Vancouver Island were no exception. 

Continue reading Island Health not exempt from B.C.’s record toxic street drug death toll →
Health

Heated exchange over Response to Vancouver’s overdose crisis

By Moira Wyton, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A Vancouver city council meeting Tuesday on a proposed overdose prevention site near upscale condos and apartments in the Yaletown  neighbourhood highlighted deep divides over the response to the deadly  overdose crisis.

Continue reading Heated exchange over Response to Vancouver’s overdose crisis →