Thursday September 28, 2023 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc. | Island Social Trends
After a review done through the health authorities this summer, the new base bed count in BC hospitals is being increased by about 7%, from 9,202 to 9,980, said Health Minister Adrian Dix today.
He was addressing media from the BC Government cabinet office media room in Vancouver.
Most of those will be medical/surgical beds but with the capacity to add critical care and specialty beds.
The increase in beds will include attention to “treatment, funding, support and staff”.
The BC Nurses Union has reported a net-new increase of 5,221 nurses in BC (during January to now), Dix noted.
Dix stated what should be obvious, that there is now even more demand on hospitals than before as resulting from the large population increase that BC has seen in the last few years (250,000 more people in 2021 and 2022, and more keep coming).