Island Health considering hotels for patients due to capacity issues

considering hotels for patients

With growing pressures on the hospital system, Health officials at Island Health are considering sending rehab patients to hotels.

In an internal email obtained and first reported by Capital Daily in Victoria, Island Health is looking in to moving people ready to be discharged from the hospital and in to a hotel begore going home.

“At no time would any patient requiring acute care be sent to a hotel room, period,” Dix said.

“The memo that the member refers to was a memo to rehab coordinators who are in charge of discharge. We do, from time to time, support people who are ready for discharge, but there are varied challenges in either their homes or their circumstances that make it challenging for them to be discharged.”

The memo describes an “over census situation” in hospitals in Victoria including Royal Jubilee and Victoria General Hospital.

In a statement, Island Health said it is an extremely busy time at hospitals but the hospitals are open and ready to take care of anyone who shows up in need of care.

The statement stresses, “To clarify a media report by Capital Daily, there is not and never was a plan to put hospital patients requiring acute care in hotel rooms”. Capital Daily updated their article mentioning this was not a claim they made.