PIDA Reporting (direct to organization)
Reporting from Jun1/2023-Mar31/2024:
- VIHA: 2 disclosures, 2 acted on, 0 investigations
- Fraser: 2 disclosures, 0 acted on
- VCH: 7 disclosures, 1 acted on, 1 investigation, 0 wrongdoing found
- Interior: 3 disclosures, 0 acted on
- Northern: 6 disclosures, 6 acted on, 6 investigations, 1 wrongdoing
- PHSA: 3 disclosures, 3 acted on, 0 investigations
Reporting from Apr 1/2024-Mar31/2025:
- VIHA: 0 disclosures
- Fraser: 1 disclosure, 1 acted on, 0 investigations
- VCH: 2 disclosures, 2 acted on, 1 investigation, 0 wrongdoing found
- Interior: 11 disclosures, 1 acted on, 1 investigations, 0 wrongdoing
- Northern: 5 disclosures, 3 acted on, 3 investigations, 2 completed, 1 wrongdoing
- PHSA: 0 disclosures
The Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) is BC's current "whistleblower protection" law. It came into effect for BC's health authorities on June 1/2023.
It's designed to allow employees to report on serious issues without fear of retribution or reprisal. These include concerns related to:
- an act or omission that creates a substantial and specific danger to the life, health or safety of persons
- a serious misuse of public funds or public assets
- gross or systemic mismanagement
PIDA enquiries and disclosures can be raised to either a designated official within each organization or the BC Ombudsperson. Not all disclosures result in investigations. There are numerous grounds, some of them quite open-ended, for the Ombudsperson or others to refuse to investigate or stop an investigation.
Note: PIDA provides whistleblower protections to employees but not contractors (such as most physicians). Contractors are protected only to the extent that they cannot be disciplined if they cooperate with an existing investigation; they cannot make a disclosure themselves under PIDA.
Does PIDA encourage concerns to be raised?
As detailed in the box, from when PIDA first came into effect until Mar 31/2025, in BC's five regional health authorities plus the PHSA there have been a total of:
- 42 disclosures
- 19 acted on
- 12 investigations
- 2 findings of wrongdoing
With somewhere between 150k-200k employees in these health authorities—and a presumed goal of the legislation to encourage people to come forward with concerns—those statistics are decidedly underwhelming.
Considering the scope of concerns (danger to health, misuse of funds, mismanagement) covered under PIDA and the many known failures within our health system, one must conclude that employees either:
- are unaware of the program
- are unclear on how to access it
- feel that making a disclosure would not resolve the perceived wrongdoing, or
- feel that—despite the protections ostensibly provided by PIDA—they would be negatively affected by making a disclosure
Ombudsperson
While PIDA complaints can be submitted to designated officers in each organization (reflected in the stats above), they can also be submitted to the Office of the Ombudsperson.
Their latest statistics (fiscal year ending Mar 31/2024) show a total of 322 complaints on these health authorities (VIHA: 80, Fraser: 87, VCH: 94, Interior: 61, Northern: 33, PHSA: 16). These are all complaints received. While no breakdown exists, the vast majority of these complaints are from patients and their families regarding care that was received. To my knowledge, no breakdown of whistleblower complaints under PIDA received directly by the ombudsperson is available.
Actual consequences (case reports) of speaking out
Coming soon…