Message from the Chair
We keep the 330,000+ people who work in healthcare in B.C. at the heart of our programs and efforts to improve workplace health, safety, and wellbeing.
Established in 2021 and operational by 2022, SWITCH BC was founded on collaborative decision-making. While our bylaws set out a process for voting when the Board of Directors is unable to reach consensus, to date, that process has not been necessary. I want to commend the conviction of our board – representatives of employers, bargaining associations, Doctors of BC, the Ministry of Health, and WorkSafeBC. We identify key issues of common importance to develop strategic programs and services that make lasting, systemic progress – together.
Since we’ve been operational, we’ve:
- Launched the OHS Resource Centre – a digital platform to support Joint Occupational Health and Safety committees across the health sector.
- Refreshed the Provincial Violence Prevention eLearning Curriculum to help prevent and deescalate the all-too-frequent verbal and physical threats facing health teams.
- Created a workplace health and safety program for community doctors (and their staff) including a web portal and violence prevention tools.
- And we are developing a model for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on the psychological health and safety of health workers.
We are proud of these efforts, and we know: there is much more work to be done. Injury prevention is a critical need in healthcare and so is finding effective ways to collaboratively drive workplace health and safety improvements through data development and data sharing.
Along with our dedicated Board, I must thank our Technical Advisory Committee who continue to provide expertise and guidance. We have other advisory groups and health workers who have helped shape all of our programs through surveys, in-person and online discussions.
The strength of SWITCH BC is in its partnerships and in creating programs with broad-based support before, during, and after so that solutions are collaboratively developed and refined, and then implementation is championed and supported throughout the sector.
Please take some time to read our annual reports and browse our website for more information.
Sincerely,
Roberta Ellis
SWITCH BC Board Chair