Can we learn lessons about aging population and health-care needs?

In the next 14 years those more than 65 years old will represent 25 per cent of the population of Canada compared to just 14 per cent in 2009, according to Statistics Canada.

“According to all selected scenarios, the number of people aged 65 years or over would surpass the number of children aged less than 14 years or under. This shift, a first in the history of the Canadian population, would occur between 2015 and 2021,” says Statistics Canada website.

As a country and a province we appear to be desperately unprepared for an aging population that would include suitable accommodation for seniors and the increased cost on the health-care system, according to a recent report by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

It is well known that an aging population has more health challenges and needs additional supports, if not hospitalization.

The recent decision to close ward Six West at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital is particularly puzzling in view of these facts. Closing it at the start of the influenza season when we know many seniors will require hospitalization is also unusual.

It is true that the opening of a new seniors’ facility this month is relieving the current pressure of seniors who were waiting for placement in the community — not being well enough to continue living independently at home. The problem is the number of seniors is increasing and there are no more seniors’ buildings under construction. That means two years from now we could be in a crisis situation without enough community placements and also a hospital at capacity.

We have not yet even officially opened the new hospital wing and we are now vacating space in the old hospital. The optics do not look good. We were told that the new wing would not include any additional beds but that departments moving into the new area would create space in the old hospital to expand wards and hospital beds rather than reduce them.

There are fabulous new operating rooms in the new wing but if we end up constantly juggling patients in hospital and surgeries are delayed due to a lack of beds we have gained nothing.

The public health care service in the U.K. is an example of just that and can be watched on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= IfyifLFcHMM

There are daily scenes of topnotch surgeons who spend the first few hours of the day “negotiating” about who will get to perform surgery if a bed becomes available.

In July 2017 there were about 550,000 seniors in Alberta and by 2031 there will be more than 928,000 seniors. By 2035, it is estimated there will be more than one million seniors in Alberta, states the website for Alberta Seniors and Housing.

Four years ago the former minister of health, Fred Horne, attended a G8 summit on dementia in London, England. He said 40,000 Albertans have dementia and another 8,000 new cases are diagnosed every year. Health-care costs for them is in excess of $649 million a year in Alberta, said Horne at the time. In the U.K. to address this there was a stronger focus on supporting caregivers and providing training on caring for someone with dementia.

The problem is family members, especially seniors in advanced age, are really not physically and emotionally up to caring for a loved one with declining health. In the U.K. it has now become increasingly difficult to hire and retain home care workers. Often patients are being held in hospital beds until a home care company can provide the service.

Let’s hope we can learn from the U.K. and not have to learn the lessons ourselves.

(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions or call her at 403-528-8635.)