Long term care homes from Kamloops to Salmon Arm, Vernon, and down into the Okanagan have declared a human resources emergency due to staff shortages.

BC Care Providers Association CEO Daniel Fontaine says they have written Premier John Horgan and Health minister Adrian Dix demanding immediate action.

Fontaine says care aides from other provinces are having to fly to Vancouver, find a hotel, and take a provincial credential assessment test, all on their own dime, to ensure they are up to snuff.

“This is the real kicker the pass fail rate is 1% pass and 99% fail. In many cases these potential care aides are being told they may have to do remedial training, and a whole bunch of other things, and a whole bunch of hoops and hurdles that are being put ahead of them. Some of them are looking at a bill of $4,500 when this is all said and done.”

Fontaine says the province needs to act.

“We were promised last fall that there would be a health human resources strategy in partnership with us and the sector. It is now May of 2019 and we still do not have anything there. That is what led our members to finally just declare the emergency and that we need the Premier to step in. This is going to require a political solution this will not be dealt with at the bureaucratic level.”

He says care aides from out of province need to be fast-tracked in order to go to work immediately in interior communities to address a shortfall of some 240 full time equivalent positions.