Recent media reports that staff at New Westminster's Royal Columbia Hospital had to treat patients in a Tim Hortons' restaurant earlier this month got people talking about the causes of ER waiting times and overflowing acute care wards. As the BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA), the Canadian Medical Association and many others have been saying, too many of these hospital beds are filled by seniors waiting months to be placed in community residential or home care. Macleans' magazine published a feature article on the problem in February and BCCPA discussed the problem on CKNW last week.
Listen here:
The night the Tim Hortons' was used to treat the acute care overflow in New Westminster, BCCPA confirmed more than 40 empty residential care beds were available within a 15 minute drive of the hospital. In our 2009 Action Plan BCCPA proposed to correct this inefficient practice and reduce wait times for home and community seniors care. BCCPA will be renewing our call for special task force to fill available residential care beds and access available home support capacity once the new Health Minister is appointed by incoming Premier Clark later this month.
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