Is There A Healthcare Staffing Crisis?

There have been several stories recently about Canadians waiting a long time for an ambulance in BC.

Just recently, one story detailed how an individual with a broken hip had to reportedly wait 7 hours for an ambulance.

Another story details a woman who reportedly suffered a stroke and who waited over an hour for an ambulance.

This is a problem that might not be facing Canadians alone as there have been other reports of concerns over ambulance wait times elsewhere, such as in the UK recently.

Some Canadian villages have launched surveys to get an idea from the public about how bad the problem might be, what sort of wait times are people facing in Canada for an ambulance? In some regions it might be longer than others.

Recent reports on the situation in BC have suggested that an overload of calls to emergency services resulted in long wait times for ambulance services. There is also concern that perhaps a paramedic shortage might cause an issue with those wait times too for an ambulance in BC.

There have been multiple stories about long waits and it is concerning to know that it can possibly take many hours in an emergency situation for help to finally be able to arrive.

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Be Prepared To Wait

We’ve heard about reports of there being issues in different regions around the province and across the country for staffing in the healthcare industry. It isn’t only ambulance services that might be suffering under that pressure, struggling to fill those positions to meet the overwhelming demand.

Mayors have also now reportedly been speaking up on the issue and some seem skeptical that no new solutions might be coming around to solve this problem.

There does seem to be more ongoing hiring however in the industry, yet still many have raised the question online in wondering why many who were let go over the last 2 years can’t be given their jobs back to fill that void.

We’ve also seen reports in Canada for some time now that ambulances might be sitting empty in BC because of those staffing shortages. Given the difficulty in hiring enough people they might need to think about paying more for the position if they are having a difficult time attracting enough interest.

Canada Single Use Plastics Ban Expected To Be Finalized This Year

Canada had a plan to ban single use plastic products this year that was announced long ago, this plan to ban single use plastics around the country is expected to be finalized at the end of 2021.

The plan to ban single use plastics in Canada includes a move to ban things like plastic grocery bags, stir sticks, plastic straws, cutlery, and containers for takeout food.

The effort put forth is a plan to try and reduce waste in the environment from single use plastics. You might have already seen the paper straws start to pop up at your favorite fast food restaurants and grocery markets, and plastic bag options have been taken away.

There are several reasons for this plan to reduce single use plastics in Canada and among those reasons Canadian leaders cite are motivations such as these materials are:
– Harmful to environment
– Costly to recycle
– There Are Readily Available Alternatives

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The Move to Ban Single Use Plastics in Canada

There are already popular grocery store chains like Safeway that have moved away from plastic bags in their stores and you need to bring a bag with you or you can purchase a reusable bag there or a paper bag. There are other stores that are also following in the same footsteps with this trend in removing more plastic from the market today.

It isn’t just BC either where businesses are making this change, other Canadian provinces have also seen similar changes.

We can now find single use plastic bans that have sprung up in Nanaimo, Surrey, and other regions. In recent years the province has also made it easier for BC communities to implement their own bans on single use plastic items and plastic bags etc.

The province is still looking to do more and it could be as early as 2023 that we start to see some new regulations on that front for the ban on single use plastics on a much more broad scale in the region.

It might not be that much longer before more retailers start to transition in the same direction and drop their single use plastic bags that they are still offering to customers these days.

Canadian leaders have suggested that they will be looking to move forward on banning those plastics by 2021 but plastic pollution is still a problem.

It is estimated that Canadians are throwing away roughly 3.3 million tonnes of plastic every year.

With those promises of banning single use plastics they are moving closer to their goals of reducing waste and some surveys have shown that the majority of Canadians support this move. However, you can still find these items readily available at different businesses around the province but in recent years it has been evolving with more compostable and paper options coming out.

That federal ban on single use plastics is expected to come into effect at the end of this year.

Almost 50% of Canadian Adults Have Had One Shot

According to COVID-19 Vaccination Tracker data there are more than 19 million doses that have been administered across Canada. This means that almost 50% of the population has received at least their first dose for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Today it is 46.406% of the population in Canada that has had at least one dose so far.

There are thousands more each day that are being added and soon it is expected that we will surpass that 50% mark if we haven’t already.

There are still travel restrictions in place in B.C. until the May long weekend and might be extended after that. They go along with a variety of COVID-19 related restrictions that are still in place, indoor dining still restricted, along with indoor religious services, and other activities.

When will we get back to normal?

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Cruise ships aren’t expected to start coming back to Canadian ports until next year, and the border is still closed for non-essential travel as well. It has been closed for longer than one year now and that has had a devastating impact for many businesses on either side.

One of those towns, Blaine, Washington, has been especially hard hit by the pandemic. Overnight they essentially turned into a ghost town when Canadians could no longer travel down to do their shopping or check their mail.

Right now it is estimated that about 60% of the U.S. population has had their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

At first Canada was far behind the U.S. in their vaccination rates but they are catching up quickly now. It’s estimated that they are vaccinating around 0.88 per cent of the population on a daily basis and will soon surpass the U.S. in first dose prevalence.

As cases continue to go down in B.C. we can only wonder when we might see restrictions eased and things go back to normal. Many businesses are still struggling and waiting to open for business as usual, like they did prior to the pandemic.

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Surveys have shown that many Canadians are strongly in favor of getting their vaccine, as well as requiring proof for travel as well. But there are also others on the opposite side of the spectrum too, who are set against it.

There are thousands of Canadians who have protested the mask mandates and other pandemic restrictions we have seen introduced in the last year either online or in the streets.

A majority of Canadians plan to get vaccinated

There is a lot of misinformation still floating out there and a great deal of hesitancy for the vaccine in Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean that millions are still not eager to get it as we have already seen in Canada and other countries.

Previous surveys have shown that only about 1 in 4 Canadians have some hesitancy about it. Other polls find at least 80% or more of Canadians are planning on getting their vaccine at some point if they haven’t already.

The sooner we get to higher prevalence of vaccination then the sooner we will also see restrictions lifted as that goes along with cases decreasing.

It’s expected that by the time we reach 75% of Canadian adults having one dose or 20% being fully vaccinated that we will see those public restrictions start to be lifted in B.C. and elsewhere.

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It is expected that practically all Canadians will have access to at least one vaccine dose by June and in the coming weeks we might see more changes to those COVID-19 restrictions.

Right now though Canadians are still being encouraged to avoid those indoor gatherings and stick with their same groups and immediate family until more are vaccinated in the country.

The reopening in B.C. cannot come soon enough for many small businesses that are still struggling since the pandemic shut everything down and changed our lives last year.

For now, officials say that it is too early to do away with the public health measures.

Health authorities in Canada do not want to make the mistake of opening up only to see a rise in cases in hospitals around the province and country again.

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Some big events have already been cancelled this year, like the PNE, but there are others that plan to go on like the Richmond Night Market 2021 and more.

A 2021 Reopening Coming Soon?

If those cases continue to decline and the vaccination rates rise quickly as they have been then it might not be that much longer until we start moving back in the other direction.

For those who have been partially vaccinated in Canada, health authorities have suggested that they still practice social distancing for now and wear their masks in public.

Just recently B.C. authorities have had to stop thousands of vehicles in the province at road checks, that were set up for enforcing pandemic travel restrictions. Right now those in B.C. are still expected to adhere to the travel restrictions that are in place for non-essential travel in B.C. and other COVID-19 restrictions as well that haven’t been lifted yet.