“Maybe we should allow crystal meth smoking in the minister’s office, then she could experience what health care workers are facing in their workplace.”
Elenore Sturko
B.C. nurses are routinely getting sick from exposure to people openly smoking drugs inside hospitals, a situation that has worsened since the province began decriminalization and ballooned this week into a political crisis for the NDP government.
A leaked memo from Northern Health on drug policies inside hospitals put the government on the defensive yet again over the controversial decriminalization program, which opponents say has contributed to rampant open drug use on city streets.
Opposition BC United critics read line after line from the memo in the legislature Wednesday, outlining directives to allow patients to use illicit drugs in their rooms and instructing staff not to seize any weapons or restrict anyone suspected from drug dealing inside hospitals.
“Patients can use substances while in hospital in their rooms – they can either be provided with a Narcan kit or have one available,” read the memo, written by a leadership official from GR Baker Hospital in Quesnel.
“Patients can use [illicit] substances while in hospital in their rooms.”
Northern Health memo
“Staff DO NOT remove personal items from the patient’s room, even if there is a knife or something considered as a weapon under 4” long…
“Staff do not call RCMP to go through personal items for a patient and do not call security to do the same. Police are only called for gunshot wounds and stabbings and related concerns.”
“Police are only called for gunshot wounds and stabbings and related concerns.”
Northern Health memo
Northern Health memo
BC United Opposition members shared the leaked Northern Health Authority memo, directing nurses to allow illicit drug use and weapons in GR Baker Hospital in Quesnel, BC.
The directive to staff, dated July 2023, noted “an increase in admissions of patients with possession of substances and using substances while in hospital” and cited the government’s new decriminalization pilot project which makes it legal to possess up to 2.5 grams of illicit drugs like cocaine, meth, heroin and fentanyl.
Cigarette smoking banned, but not use of hard drugs
“The entire memo is outrageous,” said BC United’s Shirley Bond, the MLA for Prince George. “Under this NDP government, illicit drug use and, yes, even drug trafficking in hospitals are not just tolerated, but they are endorsed.”
Drug trafficking in hospitals are not just tolerated, but they are endorsed.”
Shirley Bond
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the memo “might be better worded.”
His ministry later released updated Northern Health policies that state drug use is not allowed in the emergency department of northern hospitals, in psychiatric units, in withdrawal units or in any areas with underaged patients. Smoking of cigarettes or drugs is not allowed at all on hospital property.
“Our advice to healthcare workers is you are not the police,” Dix said in an interview.
“Our advice to healthcare workers is you are not the police.”
Adrian Dix
“I think they are trying to deal with too many issues in the memo.”
Nurses getting sick from illicit drug use in hospitals
But the B.C. Nurses Union says the Northern Health directive is far closer to the reality seen inside hospitals than the picture painted by the health ministry.
More and more nurses are walking into hospital rooms or down hallways only to find someone smoking drugs, and then becoming sick on the open fumes.
“Members have been raising this and sounding this alarm for some time and it is shocking to me that this has not come up by the public,” said BCNU president Adriane Gear.
“Are there many potential exposures? Yes.”
Adriane Gear
“I was just reading a letter earlier this month by someone who had two exposures at the Salmon Arm hospital in the course of a week. One was a fentanyl plume they were exposed to, and had physical symptoms. Once they got over that, they continued with their shift, after feeling nauseated, their heart racing and profuse sweating.
“Are there many potential exposures? Yes.”
Nurse advised not to breastfeed after exposure to drug use
BC United critic Elenore Sturko cited the case of an Island Health nurse who had just returned from maternity leave, unexpectedly walked through a cloud of drug smoke by someone using in a hospital hallway, became physically ill, and then was advised by medical experts not to breastfeed to her baby in case of contamination — a story the nurses union confirmed was accurate.
Other nurses have spoken about having to go to the emergency department for treatment after encountering drug use inside hospitals, she said.
“We’re talking about an actual dangerous situation hospital employees and patients are facing now,” said Sturko.
“Individuals were smoking drugs, and it’s a four patient room, and there are three other patients sitting there.”
Elenore Sturko
“They told me examples of going into a room where individuals were smoking drugs, and it’s a four patient room, and there are three other patients sitting there. It takes six hours for the hospital room air to be exchanged, so they had to evaluate that room for six hours.”
Hospitals reflect changes seen in communities, says minister
Dix said hospitals are reflective of the challenge seen in communities, in this case through the ongoing overdose crisis.
“When you are treating people with severe addiction that’s a challenge in a hospital,” said Dix.
“We don’t choose our patients, and people struggle and hospitals are subjected to this. I don’t disagree we have got to make them safer.”
“When you are treating people with severe addiction that’s a challenge in a hospital.”
Adrian Dix
Dix cited boosted security measures and more guards at healthcare facilities.
His ministry said no weapons are allowed on hospital grounds, despite the Northern Health directive that staff leave untouched certain knives and only call police for gunshot wounds.
Decriminalization created confusion of where drugs can be used
The prevalence of weapons is mixed depending on the hospital, said Geer, but nurses are acutely aware that someone who has a bad reaction after actively using drugs inside a hospital can become volatile, weapon or not.
Nurses are trying to navigate an increasingly complex situation since the start of the three-year decriminalization pilot project in January 2023. It’s no longer illegal for people to carry drugs like cocaine and meth into the hospital, and so those drugs have to be safeguarded and stored with other personal belongings by hospital staff. Yet the act of consuming the drug is illegal.
The question of whether legal possession is driving increased illegal use in public is one the NDP government is grappling with, amidst complaints from police, local politicians and citizens, as well as worsening overdose death numbers.
While the NDP once described those concerns as “fear-mongering” the government is now in court fighting to enact a law it passed to restrict public drug use in locations such as business doorways, beaches and transit stops. Use in parks and on school grounds was already previously banned.
Nurses shamed for raising concerns about drug use
Nurses are also trying to navigate the issue, and finding their intentions questioned by their employers in the health authorities, said Gear.
“When they reach out for support, guidance and assistance, it is usually after they’ve tried to have conversations with the employer and nurses have been made to feel basically ashamed for raising concerns,” she said.
“The narrative has been switched on them that, ‘Oh so you don’t support harm reduction, you are discriminating against people with substance use disorders.’ Which couldn’t be further from the truth.
“‘Oh so you don’t support harm reduction, you are discriminating against people with substance use disorders.’”
Adriane Gear
“Nobody signed up to become a nurse to be exposed to fentanyl in the workplace. Nurses have an obligation to keep the other patients safe. There’s these competing interests here. It does seem to be out of balance at this time.”
Despite the criticism, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside told the legislature Wednesday there are no plans to alter the decriminalization pilot.
“What we do know is that ending this particular tool, this program, which is one tool of many that we are using in this unprecedented crisis that we are experiencing, won’t save a single life,” said Whiteside.
“Ending [decriminalizaton]… won’t save a single life.”
Jennifer Whiteside
But her point was drowned out in the rising criticism of decriminalization.
“Maybe we should allow crystal meth smoking in the minister’s office, and then she could experience what health care workers are facing in their workplace every single day,” shot back Sturko, during question period.
“It is a slap in the face to nurses to hear this government deny the reality of what is happening under their watch.”