Province set to examine seniors care
Calls made for minimum staffing levels at long-term facilities
Health Minister Terry Lake has ordered a review of staffing guidelines in government-funded longterm care homes for seniors after a report from the province’s seniors advocate.
Lake said Wednesday he’s asked his parliamentary secretary, Darryl Plecas, to conduct the review and to examine how health authorities are funding seniors homes. That includes looking at the care hours for different types of seniors, such as those facing dementia and other ailments.
The Sun used data from the advocate’s report to reveal on Tuesday that the vast majority of government-funded long-term care homes for seniors in B.C. did not meet Ministry of Health staffing guidelines in 2014-15. Of the 292 government-funded facilities, 232 did not meet the recommendation of 3.36 hours of care per senior every day, work that includes helping with tasks such as toileting, feeding and bathing.
But Lake reiterated Wednesday that the staffing hours guideline is merely for planning purposes.
“We don’t think that everyone should have the same number of hours every day,” said Lake. “I think every individual should be considered for their particular individual needs. They are not widgets, they are people with individual needs based on their level of abilities and whatever situation they are dealing with.”
Isobel Mackenzie, the B.C. Seniors Advocate, and Jennifer Whiteside of the Hospital Employees Union, which represents care aides in long-term facilities, both called this week on government to legislate minimum staffing levels instead of leaving it up to facility operators. Michael Kary, director of policy and research for the B.C. Care Providers Association, whose members represent approximately 60 per cent of the government’s contracted-out beds, would like government money for care hours increased so operators could provide the recommended 3.36 hours per patient.
“We would like to see additional funding. Otherwise it’s hard to meet the numbers,” Kary said.
Instead, homes get provincial funding based on a complicated model that takes into consider- ation the medical condition of seniors and often is far below the 3.36 hours threshold, he said.
One solution is to take a small percentage of hefty hospital funding and re-direct it to care homes.
“With an aging population, you would rather not see seniors remain in a hospital where it is a lot more costly,” Kary said.
NDP Leader John Horgan asked Premier Christy Clark in the legislature Wednesday why 80 per cent of seniors in the province aren’t receiving the recommended staffing levels. Clark said her government has increased the number of seniors care beds by 26 per cent or 6,500 additional beds in recent years.
“The minister of health is making sure we do everything we can with a plan for seniors, listening and responding to the seniors advocate,” she said.
The government doesn’t track the staffing levels of private seniors care facilities to compare them to publicly-funded sites, said Lake. “Because they are private pay, they are competing for their residents and would offer probably a high level of care in terms of number of hours,” he said. “But we don’t regulate them in terms of the number of hours.”
They are people with individual needs based on their level of abilities and whatever situation they are dealing with.