Interior Health fined $274,000 after Penticton hospital staff exposed to illicit drugs

The Interior Health Authority has been fined $274,000 after two workers fell ill after entering a room where a patient was using illicit drugs.

According to a recently published Aug. 1 WorkSafeBC penalty notice, the incident took place at the Penticton Regional Hospital in April and involved staff who noticed a "noxious odour" coming from a patient's room.

A report from WorkSafeBC said the shift supervisor was told about the smell and a maintenance contractor was contacted.

"Two workers entered the room, were exposed to an unknown substance, and became ill," the penalty notice read. "Eight other workers were also treated for exposure."

"A number of workers attended first aid or further medical assistance following the incident," a WorkSafeBC report read.

In dishing out the $274,073 fine, WorkSafeBC said it was a repeated violation.

WorkSafeBC didn't say which illicit substance the staff were exposed to, or how badly they were affected.

The report said the maintenance workers were only given surgical masks before entering the patient's room and were not given enough details about potential exposure.

"WorkSafeBC determined that the employer's safe work procedure for responding to illicit substances had not been adequately communicated to workers, and they had not received training on the process to follow," the penalty notice said.

A respirator should have been used, the report said.

Following the incident, WorkSafeBC carried out an inspection, which it said was initiated following a number of complaints.

Staff reported patients using suspected illicit substances in their rooms and bathrooms and found drug paraphernalia visible in the rooms. Staff were concerned about inhaling smoke from illicit substances.

The issue of patients taking illicit drugs while in hospital made headlines earlier this year when a leaked memo from a Quesnel hospital in the Northern Health region advised nurses not to interfere with patients using illicit drugs. A similar memo was also issued by Island Health the memos were quickly rescinded but the issue became highly politicized.

BC Nurses' Union president Adriane Gear said it's hard to quantify how much of an issue patients using drugs in hospitals is but recent unscientific surveys showed nurses deal with illicit substances regularly.

Gear said at a recent bargaining conference held in Penticton, 22% of the 350 nurses who attended said they dealt with illicit substances daily.

Another month-long survey for Interior Health nurses found that 61% were exposed to illicit substances at least once a month.

Gear said the results were very concerning and she heard the most complaints in the province came from nurses working in the Interior Health region.

"(Interior Health nurses) don't feel that their health and safety is a priority for their employer," Gear told iNFOnews.ca.

The union president said she fully supports harm reduction but it can't come at the cost of the health and safety of nurses and other patients.

Gear said the size of the fine suggested that this wasn't a first-time infraction.

However, Interior Health said while WorkSafeBC call it a “repeated violation” this is in reference to staff training, although it gave no explanation as to why all staff weren’t immediately trained.

“Interior Health (IH) takes any matter potentially impacting our patients and staff very seriously,” an Interior Health spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We want to emphasize that smoking is not permitted on any Interior Health property, and we have protocols in place to support the safety of staff and patients in the event of incidents like this.”

Following the incident, WorkSafeBC inspectors found that staff at the hospital hadn't been trained in dealing with illicit drugs being used at the hospital.

The report stated that two months later the hospital still hadn't fully implemented WorkSafeBC orders to train staff to deal with illicit substances. The hospital did come into compliance in July.

The Hospital Employees’ Union said it was reviewing WorkSafeBC’s recent ruling on the incident at Penticton General Hospital.

“We will continue to push Interior Health to fully enforce health and safety regulations at this facility and all sites in this region,” the union said in an email.

According to WorkSafeBC, Interior Health was last issued a fine in 2016, when a worker was injured in a laundry room.