Williams Lake city council may have inadvertently perpetuated false information at the same meeting the mayor was pleading with the public not to share misinformation.
Some councillors were sharing inaccurate health care worker figures at a public and live-streamed meeting July 16.
Mayor Surinderpal Rathor asked the public in a regular council meeting at city hall not to share false information on social media, after some Facebook posts over the previous weekend had reported the Cariboo Memorial Hospital emergency room was closed on a night it was in fact open.
Rathor said he doesn't want to spread panic and fear and he spent time over the weekend working to counter the incorrect statements being shared by going to the hospital himself to ensure accuracy.
At the same meeting, some councillors were quoting numbers stating there are more than 5,000 nurses no longer working in B.C. due to the continued Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care staff. The number was provided by one councillor and then repeated by another councillor.
When asked where the number came from, the councillor who provided said she wasn't sure and referred the Williams Lake Tribune to Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson, who has been calling for a lifting on the ban of unvaccinated health care workers in the province. Doerkson has been pressing the provincial government to remove the mandate.
Doerkson later shared the most up-to-date information he had on numbers with the Tribune, which included responses provided by the provincial Ministry of Health.
These numbers estimate less than 2,500 health care administrative, support, and front line health care workers were terminated as a result of choosing not to be vaccinated.
These numbers may be an underestimate as some health authorities are unable to provide exact figures, however, it would not likely be more than double this figure, and is not specific to nurses.
The numbers are higher within the interior and northern regions than other parts of the province, however.
Interior Health estimates approximately 908 health care employees left their jobs rather than comply with the vaccination order. These numbers are not specific to nurses and include administration and other roles.
Of those 908, 153 were reportedly full-time staff, 215 were part-time, and 540 were casual staff members. The losses represent an estimated 3.84 per cent of the Interior Health Authority workforce.
When the emergency room (ER) in Williams Lake's Cariboo Memorial Hospital is facing frequent closures, Doerkson said his hope is being able to get even two or three nurses back to work in the ER could change everything.
"We need to consider every option right now," said Doerkson.
He is calling on Interior Health to allow staff and the community to engage in open dialogue about the current health care situation.
At the July 16 meeting, Williams Lake city council voted to send a letter to the province requesting provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry remove the vaccine requirement for health care employees in order to allow these staff to return if they would like.
Rathor supported the call for repealing the provincial health officer's order and said later it is good for the people to know what is happening but emphasized it is also important not to share inaccuracies. Rathor did not use the incorrect figure in the meeting.
