Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all.
I hope I can get through all of the questions I have, in the time I have.
I'm a physician. I worked in emergency for 20 years and, of course, I saw pretty much every department in the hospital during my training.
One of the problems I saw all through my training is that you would have a patient who is confused—whether this is dementia, or some other process—and at risk of wandering. They would sometimes fall. I've seen broken hips in patients who fell out of their beds because they were confused. I've stitched up a few heads.
There was always a Catch-22. Physical restraints are considered unsuitable and inhumane. You would have sedatives, but there is more of a push that you have consent from families. Some families don't consent to this, and we don't have staff available for 24-7 care.
I'm going to throw this out to the B.C. Nurses' Union first. How do we balance these competing priorities, when we're left with no option that is acceptable?