Independent review of B.C. COVID response calls for better communication, transparency
A review of British Columbia's COVID-19 response released Friday says despite being unprepared for the pandemic, the province showed “resilience, balance and nimbleness” during the emergency.
That's despite nearly 75 per cent of the people surveyed as part of the independent review reporting they didn't trust information coming from the government.
However, both the report's authors and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth say the online survey was not representative of the population as a whole and the results showed significantly more dissatisfaction than other public opinion research.
The review, which included meetings with 145 organizations and the survey with 15,000 respondents, made 26 findings including recommendations around better communication, transparency, data collection and improved public trust.
At a news conference, Farnworth said the government tried to be as open as possible during the pandemic and based its decisions on the best public health advice available.
“I think the approach that we took was the right one, but obviously we learned lessons from that and we welcome the feedback and report,” he said.
“What that will allow us to do is to be better prepared in the future. And we will always be looking at ways in which we can make improvements when it comes to maintaining the public's trust.”
The report says the level of trust in the government's response was very high in the initial stages of the pandemic, thanks in part to the daily media briefing lead by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
But, like in other provinces, that eroded, leaving the province in need of ways to rebuild.
Division stoked by vaccine mandates demonstrated that “a significant minority” resist public health measures, it says.
The report says there is concern “that eroding trust may translate into more resistance to restrictions necessitated by the next provincewide emergency.”
Among steps that could help with public trust, the report suggests the government find better ways to explain why decisions are made and condition the public to expect change during emergencies.
They say establishing expert advisory panels would contribute to better explanations and suggest the amount of data released by the government did not adjust as quickly as it could have when growing case numbers meant less individual privacy concerns.
“The balance between privacy and transparency could be more regularly examined and clearly communicated, as necessary to maintain public trust,” the report says.
The review highlights a lack of provincewide health-care data collection infrastructure, which it calls “a long-standing issue for health-care system management and public health.”
In B.C., there are 37 different administrative IT systems in hospitals and health authorities, many of which are not able to exchange information with each other or with central systems.
When it came to personal protective equipment for hospital staff, the province was forced to create a new system to manage provincewide inventory, the report says.
Collecting hospitalization data was a “laborious daily manual exercise, affecting timeliness and accuracy” because of the system incompatibility.
There was also no ability to automatically track vaccinations on a provincewide basis, meaning a new system had to be created “in record time,” the report says.
“Government should consider how best to deal with the disparate set of IT systems, data definitions and data collection practices to ensure that the health-care system is able to assemble needed data that is timely and accurate,” it says.
Farnworth said many of the findings in the review are part of work already underway to prepare B.C. for future provincewide emergencies.
He said the province is now more co-ordinated, has a better understanding of supply chain concerns and is updating its pandemic provincial co-ordination plan.
“I think everything that we went through, both what worked and the challenges, are going to allow us next time to be better prepared,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.