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Friday, June 14, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Training on new digital system for registering evacuees at CN Centre on Thursday afternoon.
Digital evacuation system set up for wildfire evacuees Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Lineups and waiting times should be significantly shorter if another wave of wildfire evacuees show up in Prince George this summer, thanks to a new digital registration system the city is in the process of adopting. During sessions at CN Centre on Wednesday and Thursday, roughly 250 city staff
and volunteers were trained to use the system, which needs about 20 minutes to register an evacuee, a quarter of the time it took under the paper-based system used over the last two summers. “It’s a game changer, it really is a step in the right direction,” city emergency programs manager Adam Davey said. Emergency Management BC developed the system which is also being piloted in Kamloops, the Central Okanagan and
T’Kemloops First Nation. Prince George, which welcomed 14,000 evacuees over the last two summers, is the first community to test the system at a scale large enough to resemble a major evacuation. City emergency support service director Brad Beckett said the real advantage will come when registrations are renewed and additional vouchers are provided for accommodation and food because all the information will be immediately accessible.
In the years to come, Beckett said there is a chance evacuees will also be able to register themselves online via their mobile devices. If, for some reason, the internet goes down, the paper-based system will remain in place as a backup. About 400 personnel were on hand to register evacuees last year, according to Davey. —see ‘A LOT, page 3
Health care complaints hit record Bears entering human Pamela FAYERMAN Postmedia Patient Care Quality Offices and review boards were formed 10 years ago to give health system users and their families an outlet to voice their frustration A record number of complaints were filed with health authorities last year over patient care – about 9,500 according to the Patient Care Quality Review Boards report for 2017/18. That’s up from 8,900 the year before and about 9,000 the year before that. Patient Care Quality Offices and review boards were formed 10 years ago to give health system users and their families an outlet to voice their frustration. The boards in each health region accept complaints from patients and others only if their concerns about their experiences are not resolved to their satisfaction by Patient Care Quality Offices in each health region. Less than two per cent of complaints are escalated to the review boards, which suggests patients are largely satisfied with how their local health authorities are handling their concerns, said Richard Swift, chair of the Island Health Patient Care Quality Review Board. Given the fact there are tens of millions of health care interactions, the number of complaints is relatively small, said Swift. The latest annual report gives scarce information about the nature of complaints and recommended changes but a few of them include:
Northern Health • A long-standing complaint going back to 2015 when Northern
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Health officials were alerted by a staff member to lapses in medical device disinfection and sterilization procedures related to instruments called endoscopes. Thousands of patients had procedures like colonoscopies that relied on the scopes but a consultation with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control did not show any “increase in specific infection types” during the two year period when the errors took place. Although patients were sent letters to inform them of the breeches, the review board recommended a more fulsome public communication plan including direct meetings with patients or even town hall meetings to broadcast the errors, risks, actions, and any mitigating steps. As well, the region has to ensure that when such things happen, all affected patients should have a doctor who can address any concerns and ongoing needs.
Interior Health • An incapacitated patient’s valuables and personal effects went missing at a hospital and were never recovered so the health region offered $500 in compensation. The board ordered the health region to have designated staff members whose job entails the safekeeping and documentation of patients’ belongings.
Island Health • A complaint pertained to various issues including extraordinarily long wait time for care in a hospital emergency room for which Island Health acknowledged and apologized. The complaint also involved
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an allegation that a patient was assaulted by a staff member in the ER. The health authority agreed to develop a policy detailing what actions must be taken when such complaints are made, including when police or regulatory bodies for health professionals should be contacted. • The Island review board recommended a hospital conduct exit interviews with patients to ask about their satisfaction levels with the quality of care and communication. Currently, the health ministry sends out surveys on a random basis which are then reported to health authorities on a quarterly basis. But Swift says more can be done to ensure patients are given opportunities to comment on their care.
Fraser Health • A care aide escorted a frail patient to the bathroom but then left the patient alone to attend to another matter. The low cognition patient fell in the bathroom. There are more than a dozen policies regarding the prevention of falls, some of which were not followed in this case.
Vancouver Coastal Health • A complaint was lodged about a vulnerable patient who went to a hospital emergency department. The board said the case was an example of how not to “prejudge patients who appear to be homeless, suffering from mental health, addiction issues and/or other challenges.” — see STAFF, page 3
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environments, COs say The B.C. Conservation Officer Service is reminding residents to brush up on bear safety after a spike in conflict calls this spring. Deputy chief Chris Doyle says the service received 3,826 calls about black bears and 182 about grizzlies in April and May. That’s more than 60 per cent higher than the average number of bear calls for the same period over the past eight years. Doyle says conflicts can range from bear attacks to sightings in developed areas, with everything from charging, habitual garbage eating and livestock attacks in between. He reminds residents that it’s illegal to feed bears or negligently store attractants like garbage and he points to the Wildsafe BC website as a resource for more information. The cause of the spike is unknown, but Doyle says climate and weather conditions may have meant less food for bears coming out of hibernation. “It’s possible the cold, dry spring has led to a poor availability of new growth for bears to eat as they emerge from the den,” Doyle says. Bears are coming in contact with humans all over the province but Doyle says “hot spots” include the Sea-to-Sky region and Metro Vancouver. He says they have two active investigations on the Sunshine Coast, where residents are suspected of feeding the bears. “Although the bears may not
look healthy, providing food to them is definitely not helpful,” Doyle says. “It could put yourself, as well as your neighbours and the bear, at risk.” In Prince George, conservation officers have received 204 complaints about black bears and eight about grizzlies so far this spring. Moreover, a dozen black bears have been put down and 95 per cent of the scat of the bear that was most recently put down consisted of garbage, says Conservation Officer Service Sgt. Steve Ackles. “I’m getting really frustrated with people and their garbage,” Ackles adds. “You can’t tell me they just don’t know to put it into a bearresistant container or a shed or a garage.” The same goes with people who fail to take down bird feeders once the winter is over – turning them into another draw for bears looking for easy food. He says only bears that are habituated to garbage will try to break into a shed. Habituated bears cannot be relocated, he also says. Ackles encourages people to call in bear sightings to 1-877952-7277. “We’re seeing it on Facebook,” he says. “People are saying don’t call the COs, they’re just running out to shoot those bears. Well, that’s the last thing we want to do.” — with files from Mark Nielsen, Citizen staff
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