The B.C. government and the union representing nurses say they have now hammered out minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for most hospital settings.
B.C. was the first province in Canada to announce such minimum ratios, which are intended to deliver better patient care while helping recruit and retrain nurses.
Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix said Wednesday that the new ratios will be deployed with a priority on emergency departments, where there will be a minimum ratio of one nurse to three patients.
In critical care the ratio will be one-to-one, while the province is aiming for a ratio of one nurse to four patients in most adult medical and surgical units.
B.C. has been facing a high-profile staffing crunch in the health-care sector, but Eby insisted the province will be able to maintain the ratios in emergency care.
“The vital piece for patient care is more nurses coming on into the health-care system and staying there, which means two things: training and recruiting additional nurses. and ensuring work conditions when they are there that they feel confident they are able to provide the patient care that people need,” he said.
“Having clear targets for where we’re going, actually implementing these ratios across the healthcare system and when we fail to meet those ratios ensuring that additional supports flow back to nurses.”
Eby said the province had added 14,000 nurses to the system since 2023 and had added 600 nurse training seats so that education programs are graduating about 1,900 new trainees per year.
BC Nurses’ Union president Adriane Gear said evidence from California and Australia had linked minimum nurse-to-patient ratios with both attracting and retaining nurses in the health-care system.
“For years nurses have been stretched far too thin, responsible for more patients than we can safely manage. With these new ratios we are addressing the challenge head-on, ensuring nurses can meet the needs of every patient in their care,” she said.
“Ratios aren’t just about numbers, they ensure manageable patient assignments for nurses allowing us to deliver focused, high-quality care and the reason why we entered this profession in the first place.”
She said implementing the ratios can help reduce the strain on nurses while helping clear bottlenecks that have led to emergency room crowding and long wait times.
Ratios have also been set for neonatal intensive care units, post-anesthesia care units, maternity units and operating rooms, with implementation set to begin this fall.
The province has previously earmarked $300 million to improve nurse staffing levels.
It is directing $100 million in this year’s budget to staffing ratios with a priority on emergency departments. The full suite of ratios is set to be implemented over a four-year period with the goal of hiring an additional 8,000 nurses.
The Ministry of Health said it is also working on ratios for long-term care and assisted living facilities.
The nurse-ratio numbers come as the government announced earlier this week about 248,000 people have connected with a family doctor or nurse practitioner through the province’s Health Connect online registry.
But it also comes as emergency room physicians at Surrey Memorial Hospital said in a letter sent to the president of the Fraser Health Authority that conditions there continue to deteriorate.