LANGLEY, B.C. -- Fraser Health care aides aren't welcome at a Langley assisted living and retirement community.
In fact, they've been banned.
The general manager and part owner of The Harrisons says action was taken to protect vulnerable seniors.
Glenn Bell says Fraser Health care aides have continued to work at multiple facilities despite an order from the provincial health officer in late March that they not.
"These care aides are great people. It's not them. It's the management above that doesn't seem to be taking it seriously," he told CTV News Friday.
He also says care aides were showing up with used personal protective equipment or none at all.
"They had a mask they had worn for more than a week and wore it to different facilities. They'd keep it in their back pocket, pull it out, put it on and go from one facility to the next," he says.
"That's completely useless."
But Bell also says some care aides failed to wear the gear when they had it.
"We were chasing them up the stairs, telling them to put their masks on. They would come down, their masks weren't on."
Bell says his facility wrote to Fraser Health.
"We said that the health authority would have to provide their staff with proper PPE (personal protective equipment), new equipment, when they enter our building. They phoned us and said that's not going to happen."
The Harrisons are a private retirement facility.
About 15 of its residents need support from public health-care aides and licensed practical nurses because of lower incomes.
Bell says his facility, which has its own nurses and care aides, added more staff in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been filling the gap since the ban was implemented in late March.
Dr. Bonnie Henry's first order regarding care aides not working at multiple facilities came out March 26.
But a document Bell provided to CTV from Fraser Health dated April 9 indicated that "there are no restrictions in place in terms of the number of facilities that you can work at unless it is an outbreak facility."
Henry issued an updated order April 10 that regional health boards establish working groups to facilitate the restriction of care aides to the single care home sites.
"We do expect compliance across the province," Henry said.
"Some areas of the province are ahead of others. And there has been some exceptions made in the short term. Fraser Health is working on this and will be in compliance, and there is not, as far as I'm aware of, a blanket exception within Fraser Health."
She adds that "it is complicated, and much more complicated in the Lower Mainland where you're dealing with two quite large health authorities that have a number of facilities. I know Fraser and Vancouver Coastal are working on this right now."
In a statement to CTV News, Fraser Health says it is restricting facility staff from working at multiple sites if there is an outbreak at a facility. This restriction has been in place since "soon after" Henry's first order on March 22, the health authority said.
“Staff working at long term care or assisted living facilities where outbreaks have been detected are not permitted to work at other long term care or assisted living facilities,” the statement reads.
"On April 10, the provincial health officer issued an order requiring the health authorities to use the staffing information collected by the province to develop plans to limit staff working at long term care, assisted living, extended care, private hospitals and provincial mental health facilities to a single site, and once the plans were completed, to issue appropriate single-site orders. Implementation is underway as we await the staffing information."
Meanwhile, the organization that represents care providers in the province says an estimated 4,200 staff are working at multiple sites. The BC Care Providers Association says it wants this to stop.
“It’s been about three weeks since we requested for single-site to be implemented … we thought when Dr. Henry issued that order that it would be imminent that this would be implemented and unfortunately there are still some delays,” Daniel Fontaine of the BC Care Providers Association told CTV News.
“We’re right in the midst of a health human resource crisis … There literally is not extra bodies to go around to work,” he said.
He emphasized the importance of the single-site policy being implemented.
“As you’ve seen both in British Columbia in the case of Haro Park and Lynn Valley and then other communities around the world, when COVID-19 comes within a care setting, it can have a very devastating impact,’ Fontaine said.
Ten seniors have died at Haro Park Centre in Vancouver after becoming infected with COVID-19. At Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver, there have been 20 deaths from the coronavirus.
Bell says there have been no COVID-19 cases at The Harrisons.
