The province released an independent report making 26 recommendations, such as better preparedness, more transparency and enhanced public trust, for how government can improve its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Overall, despite the lack of preparation for a provincial emergency, the British Columbia government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been robust, and demonstrated resilience, poise and agility that should give British Columbians confidence in their ability to respond to future provincial emergencies,” reads the executive summary of the 144-page report, simply called COVID-19 Lessons Learned Review.
It was prepared by three authors—Bob DeVey, Dan Perrin, and Chris Trombey, all former civil servants—who have generally praised the province for its handling of the health emergency that began in March 2020.
However, the report says the health emergency provided the county with an “opportunity” to better prepare to respond to similar emergencies in the future by acting ahead of time, making changes to the emergency management plan and how to better provide and coordinate service. First Nations.
The county commissioned the report as an operational overview of its response to the pandemic, which has been so far It claimed 4,642 lives in British Columbia.
In March, when the pledge was announced The liberal opposition was decisive He said the report would be limited because it would exclude any examination of public health decisions and economic recovery measures.
British Columbia fared better than other provinces
The report’s authors conducted public engagement and consultation with First Nations and government stakeholders. Chat directly with 200 people and receive 15,000 responses and 3,000 pages of written comments.
It also compared British Columbia’s response to that of the other four most populous provinces in Canada.
Overall, public health measures in British Columbia were less restrictive than other provinces and had the highest increase in program spending, the report says.
The report found that British Columbia also has a “slightly” higher vaccination rate than other jurisdictions and lower rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths.
Economically, the report said British Columbia did at least as well as other jurisdictions in Canada, with employment recovering to pre-pandemic levels by July 2021.
Room for improvement
The report presents 26 findings and conclusions in six categories of trust, preparation, decision-making, communication, and implementation, and how the pandemic response has impacted Indigenous peoples.
Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said his government viewed the findings as actual recommendations, and necessary action would be taken.
“All things considered, BC did a great job, are there lessons to be learned?” He said during a press conference on Friday afternoon. “Sure, because you always want to do better.”
BC’s initial response to the pandemic was through the BC Emergency Management Plan (EMBC), but its format, which includes a small group of decision makers, has created gaps in coordinating all governments’ response, the report said.
Concerns have also been raised about how transparent the province is about whether public health care decisions are supported or followed.
The report recommends greater transparency in this process.
“This could include establishing one or more formal advisory groups to support the public health official and public health decisions,” the statement read.
The report also makes suggestions about how British Columbia uses data during the pandemic, something that has been routinely examined in the province.
The report stated that public health decision makers have struggled to access the data because technology systems in hospitals and within health authorities are not integrated and working together.
The report reads: “The requirement to manually collect hospitalization data has brought to light long-standing problems that for decades have proven resistant to resolution.”
trust
The report found that trust in the government was relatively high throughout the pandemic, until August 2022, but then began a downward trend. He recommends “finding ways to rebuild trust, which will be necessary to support compliance with future restrictive measures if needed”.
In a statement, Farnworth welcomed the feedback from the report’s authors and said work was already underway to address the shortcomings it highlighted.
She said the results of the review will help the province continue work to update its emergency management legislation, which will be introduced in the spring of 2023.
The Ministry of Health and EMBC have also begun work to determine how to update the regional pandemic coordination plan.
The statement said EMBC is also participating in the Coastal Response exercise in February 2023, where emergency response activities related to logistics as part of broader supply chain management can be tested.
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