CBC Radio-September 12, 2009
The decision by the Fraser Valley Health Authority to reclassify more than 200 acute-care beds amounts to a cut, an opposition MLA says, but the health authority insists there will be no change to patient care.
The health authority's decision to redesignate 234 beds to "alternative levels of care" from acute care is the same thing as cutting those beds, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Friday.
"They're downgrading the level of service" for those beds, Dix said. "The purpose of this is to save money. How are they saving money? They're saving the money by cutting service levels."
The move is expected to save roughly $2 million a year.
Fraser Health spokeswoman Joan Marshall rejected Dix's claims, saying that while the beds' use is changing, there will be no cuts in their overall number.
"There's no loss of beds and there's no impact on patient care," she said. "It's just a grouping within the hospital."
Dix disagreed. In a region already suffering a shortage of acute-care beds, he said, it's a move that will bring chaos: "It means longer wait times. It means more problems in the emergency room."
Ed Helfrich, CEO of health-care advocacy group the BC Care Providers Association, said he's not sure the bed conversion will result in the best patient care.
"I think there are a number of community resources in existing facilities that would probably be a better environment than remaining in a redesignated bed that more likely has not been designed [for it] -- and very often these are four-bed wards versus single-bed accommodation out in the community."
