The Interior Health Authority suggests high hospital bed usage right now is not out of the normal.

According to provincial data released a week ago, base bed occupancy was 98.1 per cent on April 16 at hospitals where COVID-19 patients are taken in Interior Health, and, between those hospitals, 22.5 per cent of surge beds were being used.

No other health authority is currently using more than six per cent of surge beds.

IHA interim vice president of pandemic response, Karen Bloemink, says springtime is busy for hospitals even in a non-pandemic year.

“It is part of our day to day operations, in terms of us managing occupancy that may be in front of us on any given day,” Bloemink told reporters on a media conference.

“Part of our typical approach when we are managing day-to-day utilization in our hospitals is to adapt usage of the beds that we do have, given the demand that is on our plate on any given day. And sometimes that may include using surge beds.”

According to data released a week ago, as of April 16 there were only 23 vacant base beds out 1,195 that are available, and there were 213 vacant surge beds out of a possible 275. Also, Royal Inland Hospital, Kelowna General Hospital, Pentiction Regional Hospital and Kootenay Boundary General Hospital were all operating above 95 per cent base bed capacity as of April 16.

Bloemink says IHA is keeping an eye on occupancy across the board, and would make changes to staffing as needed.

She also urges the public that hospitals are safe, and people can, and should, go to a hospital if they need medical care.

Starting today, nine hospitals in the Lower Mainland will see non-urgent surgeries postponed for two weeks, affecting an estimated 1,750 surgeries. That’s as COVID-19 patients in hospital have hit new daily records over the past two weeks.