B.C. nurses warned against using professional titles when protesting COVID-19 health orders
CBC
The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) is warning its registrants against using their professional titles when organizing or taking part in opposition to COVID-19 public health orders.
The new warning comes as a fledgling movement to create private wellness clinics in B.C. hit an obstacle on Tuesday.
An Ezra Wellness clinic in Kamloops operated by nurses who were put on unpaid leave as a result of their vaccination status was shut down by the building's landlord, just days after it opened its doors, over a leasing dispute.
Ezra means help, aid or protect in Hebrew.
The college issued the warning partly as a result of the clinics being opened by unvaccinated nurses, a spokesperson said, as well as the broader spread of COVID-19 misinformation by regulated health professionals.
As of Tuesday, the provincial death toll from COVID-19 stood at 2,186 people.
"There have been numerous media reports over the past days and weeks regarding activities of BCCNM registrants who participate, organize, or agitate against public health orders in place to deal with COVID-19," the college said in a statement.
"We want to assure registrants and the public that we are working with our partners in the health-care system, including the Ministry of Health and are taking steps to address such reports," it continued.
The Ministry of Health reported on Monday that more than 3,300 health-care workers are now on unpaid leave because they were not immunized by the Oct. 26 deadline for mandatory vaccination.
That accounts for 2.6 per cent of health-care workers in the province. In the Interior Health region, five per cent of health-care workers are on unpaid leave for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
That's the region that's seeing the emergence of the Ezra Wellness movement.
A woman named Svetlana Dalla Lana claims on Facebook to be the founder of Ezra Wellness. She has her occupation listed as NURZ and has opened a clinic in Grand Forks.
There are Facebook groups for Ezra Wellness centres in Castlegar and Vernon, though it's not clear that they've established clinics in those communities.
In Kamloops, the centre opened its doors Oct. 26, but it didn't have a business licence and restricted its activity to chatting with people who came in.
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